The Illusive Knight
by Gammatron942
Summary: A reality driven to destruction. Another is destined to share the same fate. When Jack Harper thought he'd die on the Citadel, he soon finds himself in this new reality. Different Earth, different time, different history. But above all, a chance to forge a new path for humanity. He would ensure they succeed. The Illusive Man would accept no less than victory.
1. Prologue: A Change Through Time

**AN: Hello everybody, and welcome to my first story on the site! I will be having a proper author's note at the end, so I'll talk there, as I want to simply get people to start reading the story first. So, let's dive straight into it!**

 **I do NOT own either Mass Effect or Code Geass. They belong to Bioware and Sunrise Entertainment, in that order. The only thing I technically own are any OC's that I personally create and appear in the story. Any similarities to characters outside of Mass Effect and Code Geass that I do not explicitly mention that I am basing them off of in either the beginning or ending Author's Note are not intentional. Same goes for any similarities to other OC's by other authors.**

 **So, on that note, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Anyone there?" – Normal speaking

" **What is that?** " – Character thoughts

" **Intruder Alert!** " – Speaker/Computer text

" _Command, this is Alpha-1."_ – Radio/Communications

" _ **Die!**_ _"_ – Geass command

* * *

 **The Illusive Knight**

 **Prologue: A Change Through Time**

Silence.

That was the most noticeable thing about the island. The sounds normally associated with other islands were missing, with no indication that the sounds even existed. If anyone walked into the area, they would most likely find the silence strange. Unnerving. Some may even call it unnatural. But, then again, the silence was anything but natural.

The island was barely travelled to, as there was nothing of note that could be of use to anyone. Realistically, the only true knowledge of the island came from explorers that charted the area a few centuries prior. The only thing that was reported about the island, along with the fact that there was no resources that they didn't already have in abundance, was the silence. No animals, no winds, no nothing. This silence always unnerved it's visitors, so it never really had any. No one came to it. It was of no use to anyone. No one except for one individual.

The individual in question was getting off of the small fishing boat that he had gotten a ride on. While the island may not be important, most sailors in the local area knew about the island. The man thanked the sailor for his services, and asked if the sailor would return at the time he had specified, which the sailor agreed to. As the boat began to leave, the man turned, and began to head deeper into the island, a destination obviously in mind.

If you had asked the sailor what he thought of the man, he would say that, while he did find the man pleasant, he found him to be unnerving. The man, standing at 6"4', had a cloak that he wore at all times, not revealing anything of what he looked like, with nothing but small body movements and his voice to give way to his emotions on what he thought. Every time he talked, the man portrayed an air of confidence and of command, always seeming to be in control of every conversation they had. While the conversations they had were pleasing, the sailor couldn't help but think that there was something off with the man. Something that he was unable to identify, but would always evade his ability to place it. He wondered why the man wanted to come to this specific island, when there were islands larger and less of a distance to the mainland, but then decided not to worry about it. The man paid him a good price to take him to the island, so why should he bother trying to figure out why if one man decides to go somewhere?

* * *

The man walked through the forest, moving further inland as he kept a watchful eye out for anyone, maybe even the sailor that had followed him. The shifts in his hood were the only indications that he was doing so. After a few minutes of walking, he reached his destination. The ruins stood before him, as silent as every other time he came here. Watching. Waiting. Here, at this ancient structure, the silence was deafening. No sounds of animals, no noises of the wind, no crashing of the waves at the shore, nothing. It was as if this structure was avoided by everything, even sound itself.

The structure was one created by a powerful civilization, one whose history was forever forgotten in time. Seemingly erased from history, almost no one knew about this civilization. In the coming years, many people would speculate on what this ancient structure was, make great discoveries, and advance mankind farther than they ever would believe that they could. But that was not now. Right now, this structure remains desolate. Empty and forgotten, residing on a small island of little to no importance to the world. Hidden to all, except a few who knew of their purpose.

The individual standing in front of the structure was one of these people. He stood in front of the structure, silently observing it. Like always, it had not changed. Untouched by even the jungle around it, everything was still in the same condition it always was when he came. The man took one last look around, making sure that no one had followed him, and, when certain that there was no one, he entered the structure.

Just like the outside, the inside of the structure was in a similar condition. Untouched by the outside world, many designs and symbols could be seen lining the walls of the structure, unknown to all, even to those who know the purpose of these structures. Other than the symbols, there was nothing else of note to any regular observer. But for the man who just entered, there was something of note.

At the back of the room, a wall, almost in the shape of a door, stood out from the other walls, due to the drastic difference of the design on it. In front of it was a raised platform, seemingly putting importance to that area, even though there seemed to be nothing there. Years later, research groups would find that there was nothing behind that wall, or even in that area. But for the man, there was something. Something only a few people knew. The man immediately went to the platform, walking with a sense of purpose. When he got on the platform, he stopped, staring for a few moments at the door.

As the man stared at the door, a light began to glow through the fabric of his cloak. At the same time, a light began to shine from both the wall and the floor. In that moment, the man stood stock still, almost like a statue, with nothing occurring to indicate that he was even alive The only thing indicating any activity in the structure was the pulsing light, one that had formed a symbol. A symbol that would influence the world greatly in the coming years. The symbol of Geass.

On that day, on the little island known as Kamine Island, the Thought Elevator was activated. Because of that activation, one that in another time never occurred, the world would change. Wether it was for better or for the worse, no one would truly agree on. But one thing was certain: the world would never be the same after this.

* * *

No matter how many times he activated it, he always found the transition of his mind from the real world to C's World disorienting. The sudden change from the ruins to a decently decorated entranceway, one that you would usually find in a mansion, had that kind of effect. The first time he entered C's World, he was so shocked that he nearly passed out by the suddenness of the transition. But, to be fair, anyone who was in the ruins and suddenly found themselves in a mansion's entrance of all things would certainly be disoriented as well.

The man, after reorienting himself, began to walk down the nearest hall, searching for a particular room. The reason? He had a meeting, one that he would not miss under any circumstances. Even if he had to knock himself unconscious and let his Code transport his mind here, he would have made sure he was at this meeting. The only reason he didn't simply follow that path was that it could be a bit inconvenient if someone interrupted the meeting by waking him up. So, he simply decided to transport himself from Kamine Island instead.

After a few minutes of walking down the halls, the man stopped and turned down into one of the rooms, entering it with it's door already open. As he entered the room, he immediately took notice of the other individual already sitting there, holding a cup of tea. After taking a sip of his tea, the individual turned to him, nodding in greeting, and said, "A pleasure to see you again, D.A."

The man nodded back, sitting down on the chair. "The pleasure is all mine, Reaper. Although, I would prefer it if you actually used the code names we agreed upon." he responded.

The man identified as Reaper scoffed. "Why use code names when we are safe from eavesdropping here?" he asked. "It's not as if anyone other than our little group even know how to get into these rooms."

D.A. simply stared at Reaper, and eventually, Reaper sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll call you by your code name, alright Arca?" he replied. "There. I called you by your code name. Happy?"

Arca continued to stare for a few moments, and then sighed. "Yes, that's better." He eyed Reaper, looking at his appearance, and asked, "What happened to you? It looks as if you just got off of a battlefield."

Reaper began to chuckle, as he poured himself another cup of tea. "That's pretty much what happened." he responded. "Got caught up in a small gang battle on my way down to the Thought Elevator. Thought I could simply sneak through and get here early. Unfortunately, one of the gang members spotted me, and thought I was a part of the rival gang. Got pretty scratched up as I got through it, with quite a few people trying to shoot me. Nothing that a little bit of time won't heal, but it sure stings like crazy."

Looking at his appearance, Arca could easily agree to that. His clothing, a regular pair of slacks, along with a blue polo shirt thrown on top, were full of holes. Inside, Arca could tell the skin there was freshly healed, meaning that he had only started healing at least 30 minutes before Arca entered the room. Otherwise, the wounds would either still be healing, or showing signs of injury. Along with his clothes, his face was also showing signs of a fight. His golden-brown hair, cut short, was in disarray in comparison to his normally straight look. His emerald green eyes also showed signs of fatigue, which Arca could easily see, and understand. Even though Reaper stood at 5"9, and had a fairly decent body build, he always had trouble with excessive action.

Arca nodded in understanding, and said, "I can understand that sentiment completely. Although, I do have to ask: why did you go through the battle instead of around it to get here?"

Reaper didn't even bother to look at Arca, as he replied, "Why didn't I go around? Well that's simple. I would prefer a small bit of wounds to heal from within a short amount of time, than go through another one of your three hour speeches on how we should be orderly and on time."

Arca frowned, continuing to stare at Reaper. "Oh, come on." he replied. "My discussions are not that long, or that bad for that matter."

Reaper simply raised an eyebrow at Arca. "Really?" he asked. "Because I remember wishing that I could find a way to knock myself out without you realizing I was knocked out just to get out of it. I mean, seriously, how does someone go on for three hours on the merits of being orderly and on time?"

Reaper then began to rant about how boring Arca's talks were, and how he wished he could just avoid them entirely. Arca didn't even bother answering, as he looked around the room, and realized that someone was missing. "Wait," he said, interrupting the little rant that Reaper was going on. " Where's Ghost?"

"I don't know." Reaper replied, halting in his rant. "She hasn't shown up yet. In fact, I'm not even sure she'll show up. You know how she is. For all we know, she simply—"

"I simply what, Reaper?" A voice called out from the corner of the room. Reaper let out a yelp, as he turned in his chair. Unfortunately, the chair was not meant to turn in the way he tried to turn, and ended up throwing him onto the floor. As Reaper looked up, trying to get himself off of the floor, he could see the cloak that Arca wears shaking slightly, as Arca tried to hide his laughter. A soft chuckle was also coming from the corner of the room. He glared at the corner that the chuckles were coming from, and said, "Ha ha, very funny Ghost. Laugh it up, as I'm not going to let that happen again."

The chuckling turned into light laughter, as Ghost replied, "That's what you said last time. What's going to stop it from happening again?"

As she said this, Ghost stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room. If Arca were to describe her, she would have to be described as a beautiful predator. Standing at 5"4', Ghost had a finely honed figure. A cloak covered her body, but Arca could make out the usual skin tight infiltration suit she usually wore, accompanied by various belts and harnesses. The only reason he knew of any of this was because of the times he sparred with her. He still remembered how many times they either tied, or one of them beat the other without even breaking a sweat. As for Ghost's face, it was unique. While her blond hair didn't stand out too much, especially with her fair facial figure, it was her eyes that were striking. As crimson red eyes looked around the room, Arca couldn't help but approve of her actions, sweeping the room quickly for any indications that they were being listened into. That was one of the many reasons he considered her a predator: always ready to pounce on any prey, she gave off the feeling of someone to remain cautious around.

Reaper finished placing everything back into their usual order, and said, "That incident happened because you decided that it was fun to spice up my tea, and then waited until I was about ready to strangle Arca, thinking that he had done it, when you decided to scare the crap out of me!"

Ghost simply chuckled, taking a seat next to the others. "Yes, I did do that." Her smirk widened, and she replied, "I regret nothing, and would do it again in an instant. After all, you've never been able to get me back for it."

Reaper began to sputter, as he responded, "T-t-that would have worked that one time, if Arca hadn't interrupted beforehand. I almost managed to nab your only—"

"Enough!" Arca shouted, gaining the attention of the two other individuals in the room. While it was nice to remiss about other times, they were here for a reason. That reason couldn't wait any longer. "As much as I'd like to simply relax and talk, we have to confirm some of our preparations. Ghost, have you managed to complete your objectives?"

Ghost nodded, her back straightening as she replied, "Yes sir. I've scouted out the locations of the other Thought Elevators, and have people we can trust keeping an eye on them. If there's any change, or V.V. tries to get a hold of any of them, they'll let us know. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find out anything about the Directorate's current operations or development sites." Ghost sighed, as she rubbed her forehead. "They recently tightened up security on every one of their agents and facilities, making it too risky for me to get anyone into a good position to spy on them."

Arca nodded. "Understandable." He replied, drumming a gloved hand on the arm rest of the chair he was sitting on. "While unfortunate, we were at least partially expecting it. Reaper, what about you?"

Reaper took yet another sip from his tea, a frown on his face. "Similar to Ghost, in terms of success. I've been able to keep up the alias you made in the both the business world and the Britannian courts with a proxy agent, just like the you asked me to for the last few years. People in the business world are getting a bit antsy about not seeing the man they usually talk to, but that's about it. What I'm more worried about is the nobles in the Britannian courts. They're starting to ask questions, and I can't stall them from trying to find out more for much longer."

Arca simply nodded. While he hoped that it would be a little while longer before they started to ask questions, he couldn't say that this was entirely a surprise. If anything, he was just glad they held off for this long.

"As for the sites you asked for me to purchase, I've been partially successful." Reaper continued. "I've managed to get a few sites in the northern area of Area 2, as there hasn't been much development due to the conditions of the land up there. With no resources to really exploit, not many people had an interest in it. Unfortunately, those were the only sites I managed to get a hold of. The other sites we had in mind, while they seemed as if they would have no issue in acquiring, have recently become hotly contested due to other interests wanting it for themselves, along with recent discoveries of usable materials. The other available places don't suit the specifications you asked for. So, for now, we're stuck with only the places in Area 2."

Arca frowned when he heard the news. He had been hoping to acquire those sites without any issue. It would have been extremely beneficial to have them in the future. Luckily, it won't hinder them too much, just slow down their schedule a bit.

"Alright." Arca began, straightening his back a bit. "While I would have liked a bit more done, what you've done will help us immensely. Now, I believe we are ready to conduct the final preparations."

"The final preparations?" Reaper repeated, eyes having gone wide at the statement. "No offence, Arca, but are you absolutely sure that we're ready for that?"

"I have to agree with Reaper on this, sir." Ghost chimed in. "You said it yourself before, everything has to be just right in order for it to work. Are you certain that everything has been worked out properly?"

Arca just nodded, seemingly dismissing their concerns. "While I know what I said, and I know that you're worried, you have nothing to fear. I've made sure everything is in proper order. Everything will work, I can promise you that."

Reaper nodded, his face betraying his nervousness. "If you say it'll work, I'll believe you. But if this doesn't work, don't be blaming me for anything."

Arca scoffed, raising himself out of his chair. "As if I'd blame you. If anything goes wrong, it'll most likely be my fault." he replied

The two others followed suit, getting out of their chairs and following Arca. As they walked to another door in the room, Ghost asked, "Sir, if you really think that everything is ready, then I'll believe you. But the only question I have is how we'll be interacting with him when he's brought over."

Arca, as he reached the door and began to open it, looked at Ghost and said, "We'll deal with that when we reach it." As he said this, the door was opened all the way, revealing a rectangular device, covered with wires entering and exiting it. Pipes connected to the device, disappearing into different points in the walls, an unknown liquid flowing through them. Three terminals were in front of the device, with wires on the ground in front of them.

As the three entered the room, they each went to one of the terminals, grabbing the wires and attaching the pads they were connected to onto different areas. Arca placed the wires above his heart. Ghost placed the wires on her forehead. Reaper placed the wires on his throat. Arca, once making sure that the others had attached their wires, gave a nod, which the others returned. Each of them closed their eyes, the only noise in the room being the faint humming of the device. Nothing seemed to be happening.

Then, one by one, a light began to glow at the areas the wires were attached to, and a symbol began to form. The sign of Geass, the sign of a Code Bearer, began to glow on the areas that each individual attached the wires to. Shortly after, a geass symbol formed on the device. A few moments later, Arca began to feel it. The machine began to send out pulses of energy. Starting out periodically, and rising in intensity and frequency, the machine began to pulse. The power of the Codes, harnessing both their connection to C's World and the innate power of the Thought Elevators, began to enhance the sheer power of the machine to unfathomable levels. Soon, the pulses became constant, occurring rapidly and without pause, and the area began to rumble.

As the device activated, only one thought went through Arca's head. One thought that he was banking the future of everyone on. A hope, one that may yet fail.

" **Let's hope this works."**

* * *

He expected to feel pain.

That was the strangest thing about it all. He anticipated pain, anger, even regret for all the actions he could have done differently, better, and without all of the pain he caused. But instead, he felt nothing. He should have expected this, he mused. When Shepard shot him, he thought the pain would be agonizing. But it wasn't. In fact, he felt none at all. Probably the Indoctrination suppressing his feelings, he supposed. It would make sense as to why he didn't feel anything.

While Jack Harper laid against one of the supporting pillars of the Citadel, he began to ponder his decisions as he took his final breaths. Could he have done something different? Something that could have left him and many others alive? Could he have done something to prevent his Indoctrination, and prevent his turn against the very people he founded Cerberus to protect? Perhaps he would never know. It would be a suitable punishment, dying without ever knowing if something could have been done differently. Without ever seeing if Shepard was successful. Without ever seeing the fate of the Reapers.

As his body slowly failed him, he turned his head to the sky of the Citadel, the emitters simulating a sky having been destroyed in battle. Now, nothing was left except for a view of the Widow Nebula, as many other ships combatted the Reapers defending the Citadel. It was ironic, he mused, that the organization he created to ensure human supremacy and fight off aliens ended up being forced to obey the orders of an alien. It wasn't even that he hated aliens, as he had met a few that he had pleasurable experiences with. It was simply a tool he used to raise support to help him combat the very real fear of humanity becoming slaves in all but name to the Citadel Council. That, and the fear of what laid behind the Indoctrination devices.

Soon, he mused. Soon, everything will be over. Shepard will have stopped the Reapers, Humanity will rebuild, and soon, the galaxy will be back to normal. In fact, if anything, the Reapers will have made it so Humanity will have to be relied upon more heavily to aid in the rebuilding of the Council. That thought brought a smile to his face, as he closed his eyes for the final time.

With that last thought, The Illusive Man completely let go, and his body began to die. At long last, The Illusive Man, Jack Harper, died.

At least, that's what was supposed to happen.

With a sudden jolt, Harper screamed out, his body trembling in agonizing pain. He began to thrash about, as if battling an unseen foe. Eventually, the screaming stopped as Harper fell unconscious. If anyone was observing him, they would have noticed a strange symbol glowing in the air in front of him. A symbol that looked like a bird in flight. Shortly after the symbol appeared, a bright flash of light could be seen. Once the flash subsided, one detail would become clear. A detail that many would wonder about in the following years.

The body of Jack Harper was gone, and in it's place was the same symbol that could be seen in the air. One that no one would be able to understand the importance of.

No one in this universe, at least.

* * *

As the pulses from the device began to slow down, the three individuals began to pant in exhaustion. Even though no physical energy was expended, utilizing their Codes in this manner was exhausting. As the device began to power down, Reaper looked at Arca, and asked, "Did it work?"

Arca just looked over at Reaper, his arms on the console to stabilize himself, and replied, "I don't know."

Reaper just looked incredulously at Arca. "What do you mean, you don't know?!" he shouted.

Arca raised a hand to forestall any arguments. "What I mean is we won't know until we actually go and look. I never expected him to be near the Thought Elevator or in C's World. In fact, I tried to aim his entrance to one of the empty ICU rooms in the hospital that we own. Even if we had got him here, it would be a bit suspicious if we came with another person out of the Thought Elevator. Two others will already be strange enough. An extra person, unconscious unconscious even, would raise too many suspicions. "

Reaper slowly nodded, understanding what Arca was getting at. "So then," he slowly replied, "guess we'll have to head over there?"

"Yes." Arca replied. He looked at the two others, and said, "Alright, we'll exit out of the Kamine Island Thought Elevator. It's the closest Thought Elevator to mainland Britannia that's not under guard already by V.V. and the Directorate."

The other two nodded in agreement with Arca's assessment. Arca then turned to Ghost and asked, "Will your assets be able to handle themselves for a while?"

Ghost huffed, as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Of course they can." she replied. "What, do you think I don't know how to choose people who can follow simple orders?"

Arca simply began to walk out the door as the other two followed him. "Of course not. I'm completely confident in your abilities to choose individuals. I simply want to make sure that nothing goes horribly wrong in this situation. Things are fragile enough as it is."

As they walked out of the Thought Elevator, the Codes of Reaper and Ghost began to glow. As Arca reoriented himself with his body in the real world, he observed the elevated area he was standing on. The bodies of his allies began to materialize on the platform, being transported from their respected Thought Elevators covertly. The pulses normally associated with it were being masked by the efforts of all three Code Bearers. Why did they mask the pulses? The answer was simple. Arca could not afford V.V. or the Emperor finding out about his actions. Not yet. Not until it was too late would they learn the truth about what was yet to come. Maybe, just maybe, there might be some hope for everyone. As they walked away from the platform and out of the entrance of the Thought Elevator, the symbol of Geass that formed on the wall and platform slowly faded away. Now, nothing was left to indicate that anything had been there in the first place. The silence returned, leaving the ruins in the state they had experienced for countless years.

When the sailor returned to the island, he was surprised to see that there were two other individuals with the man he had brought to the island. Were they the reason why he came here? But then, why didn't he see any traces of other vessels when he landed? The sailor was about to ask the man about it when Arca handed the sailor a set of bills in his local currency. He told the sailor that, if he kept quiet about the trip and took the others with him back to Japan without any trouble, he would be paid extra. The sailor accepted the money as he realized it was best not to ask any questions. After all, why give up the chance to make more money than he usually makes in a year? So the sailor set course for Japan, taking along his passengers. Once they arrived at the shore, Arca thanked the sailor as he and his group left to the nearest airport to catch a flight to the Britannian mainland.

In the next few days they would see what would change, Arca mused. Even if things didn't work out, he would find some way to succeed in his objectives. No matter what.

* * *

He expected something different.

That was the first thought that went through Harper's mind. After that excruciating amount of pain he felt, he expected to feel nothing: to no longer think, to no longer exist. What he didn't expect was to be feeling as if he were floating in nothing but a void of space. To him, something felt off.

For a brief moment, when he felt that pain just before he fell unconscious, he saw the symbol that was in the air in front of him. That symbol of a bird in flight. What did it mean? Why was it there? Was it part of the reason he was not simply gone from all existence? Whatever it was, it didn't matter. For him, he simply accepted it. He was dead, so what did it matter? Perhaps this was all just an illusion, an after effect of Indoctrination to torture him before his consciousness completely faded. Perhaps it was all just one more form of torture inflicted by the Reapers, to torment him before he passed away.

As he continued to think on that train of thought, he began to hear something. A faint beeping could be heard, almost inaudible to him. He latched onto it immediately, as it served as a line to try and figure out what was happening. Most people would have simply left it alone, as they would have believed that it was a trap laid out by the Reapers. But not Harper. For Harper, he needed to know. He needed to know what was happening, if this was a form of torture by the Reapers or something else. Perhaps that symbol was an illusion. Perhaps his body held on just long enough for the Alliance to get hold of his body and get him to a hospital. If that was the case, he would most likely be facing charges for his crimes. But at this point he didn't care. He just needed to know whether he was being trapped by the Reapers or if he was finally free.

As he pulled his mind towards the noise, it began to grow louder. As he did that however, it began to get more and more difficult to pull his mind towards it. As he forced himself to get closer to the sound, he began to hear voices. At first they were unintelligible, but soon they became clearer, and he could make out what was being said.

"Doctor, his vitals are spiking!"

"What?! Arca said that he shouldn't be up for at least a week!"

"I-I-I don't know sir! All I know is that his vitals are spiking!"

Harper began to force his consciousness forwards, trying to get his body to respond to his commands. As he fought for control, he slowly began to feel his body again. He immediately winced as he began to feel the pain he was in.

"Sir, heart rate is 160 bpm and rising! Blood pressure is exceeding the safe zone!"

"Get me a sedative Nurse! Also get the painkillers! If his system is acting up like this, it's quite likely that he'll be feeling extreme pain right now if he's even semi-conscious!"

After regaining feeling in most of his body, Harper forced his eyes to open. He immediately winced, the light being blindingly bright to him. As he adjusted to the light in the room, he could slowly make out the shape of two individuals: a man and a woman. Obviously they were the Doctor and Nurse that he heard talking.

"D-Doctor! I-I think he's awake!" the woman shouted.

"Give me that sedative and the painkillers now!" the Doctor bellowed. "His system hasn't healed enough for him to be conscious! He could accidentally harm his system to an irreparable state if he isn't sedated!"

As the Nurse gave the sedative to the Doctor, Harper took notice of a few things. The first was there were no holograms usually associated with an Alliance or Council medical facility. Nor did the doctor seem to have an Omni-Tool. The place he was in now looked nothing like any medical facility the Alliance, Council, or even Cerberus had. The only thought that came to Harper's mind as the Doctor began to inject the sedative was, **"Where am I?"**

As the sedative began to take effect, Harper began to slowly lose consciousness again. The last thing he heard from the Doctor was, "Keep an eye on him in case this happens again. We don't want him harming himself. Also, inform Arca of this development immediately. He'll want to know about this."

Just before he fell unconscious, he couldn't help but feel that something was about to happen to him. What it was he didn't know. But whatever it was, he did not have a good feeling about it. Harper, for the second time in his recent memory, fell unconscious due to circumstances out of his control.

Soon, Harper would wake to the world. For better or for worse, The Illusive Man would live on. Even if he didn't know where he was, he would live. He didn't know what had happened since the events on the Citadel, but he would soon be able to find out.

Little did he know that nothing would be the same when he woke up.

* * *

 **AN: There we go! The first chapter of The Illusive Knight is now finished! I really hope that you liked the chapter, as this is my first time writing a full fledged story like this. Please rate and review, as that would be greatly appreciated. If you notice any errors, please let me know, and I'll modify them as soon as I can.**

 **So, this is going to be an interesting one to say the least. The Illusive Man in the Code Geass universe. I can tell you right now, if the story pans out in writing as it has been panning out in my head, then it is going to be quite interesting for me to write. Hopefully, it'll be interesting for all of you as well. I got the idea for this story after reading** _ **Living an Indoctrinated Dream**_ **by Aberron, and** _ **A Cold Calculus**_ **by Z98. If you haven't read those stories, then go check them out. They're extremely well written, and are just great reads overall.**

 **Basically, the idea came after a binge read over the period of a few days of reading those stories, as I couldn't put them down and had the time to spare. I started to think about what would happen if the two universes clashed. While I know there are some Code Geass and Mass Effect crossovers out there, and a couple of really good ones as well, I realized that there was no stories about what would happen if someone came from one into the other. When I read these stories, the idea came to me that it would be interesting to see what would happen if The Illusive Man was transported into the Code Geass universe. The idea of transporting The Illusive Man had two reasons behind it. The first was how different things could be with someone as intelligent as The Illusive Man thrown into another world, and attempting to change it, demonstrated by Aberron's story in how The Illusive Man is sent back in time to a period of his life before most of the events in the Mass Effect timeline occurred. The second reason is that I really wanted to explore The Illusive Man's character when it's not shaped simply by Mass Effect's story repeating, but when it's changed by the Code Geass universe, along with the changes The Illusive Man would have on the Code Geass timeline. I don't know how it'll pan out, but thank you, Aberron, for not only giving me the idea to send The Illusive Man into the Code Geass universe, but for a great read overall.**

 **As for why I listed** _ **A Cold Calculus**_ **, it can be partially seen in this chapter on how I'm changing how Geass, Codes, and the World of C works. While I will be making it unique to a way I feel happy with,** _ **A Cold Calculus**_ **is what cemented the idea of changing how Geass works in this story. Honestly, I don't expect the change to be as good or as solidly implemented as Z98's changes, but I hope that they'll at least prove interesting enough. Again, thanks for the great story and the idea Z98.**

 **So, who are Reaper, Ghost, and Arca? What are their objectives? How does Arca seem to know exactly who The Illusive Man is? Well, you'll find out as the story goes on. If any of you have any guesses, let me know! I'm curious to see if anyone can get close to what I've planned for aspects of the story. Again, I really hope that all of you like the story. You will not believe how nervous I am posting this, as I've never done anything like this before.**

 **So, that's it for this Authors Note. I hope all of you who read this had a good time, and I wish you all a good day.**

 **Signing off.**

 **Gammatron942**


	2. Chapter 1: A Hospital of Secrets

**Hello everyone! This is Gammatron942, back with another chapter of The Illusive Knight!**

 **I'll be completely honest here. This chapter was quite annoying to write. It went under so many revisions in my mind and on the document that I was never truly satisfied with it until now. This resulted in a post date far later than what I wanted. I'm hoping that the next chapter won't have as much of a wait, but I can't really trust my own brain to cooperate with me. I probably just invoked Murphy's Law by saying that, but oh well. I'll talk a bit more at the bottom, as is going to be the usual for most of the future chapters.**

 **I feel that it's appropriate to warn you all that this chapter may seem a little bit slow. Don't worry, this chapter and the next are going to act as a springboard for me to get into the true story. The next chapter will show things beginning to speed up, don't worry.**

 **I do NOT own either Mass Effect or Code Geass. They belong to Bioware and Sunrise Entertainment, in that order. The only thing I technically own are any OC's that I personally create and appear in the story. Any similarities to characters outside of Mass Effect and Code Geass that I do not explicitly mention that I am basing them off of in either the beginning or ending Author's Note are not intentional. Same goes for any similarities to other OC's by other authors.**

* * *

"Anyone there?" – Normal speaking

" **What is that?** " – Character thoughts

" **Intruder Alert!** " – Speaker/Computer text

" _Command, this is Alpha-1."_ – Radio/Communications

" _ **Die!**_ _"_ – Geass command

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" _Many people wonder about the events in the years before the Second Pacific War and with good reason. Everyone knows about the major players in Britannia during that time. There are a few influential people who came to positions of power after the Second Pacific War, but most of their histories are well known. Three of the major influential people however, are surrounded in mystery. Two of them are so heavily classified that I doubt anyone would know about them other than the individuals involved and the current Emperor himself, as he was the one who ordered the classification of their files and has prevented anything about them to come out. The only reason we even know that there were more is because of the murmurs in high ranking circles. But even then, these other two individuals are rarely ever talked about. We don't even have concrete knowledge of what they did, only hints and indicators that there was something else that went on during the time period._

 _The third individual however, is both well known and respected, even though not many know about his history nor the mystery surrounding it. In this day and age, I doubt that anyone doesn't know the name of Jack Harper. With what he's done for Britannia, it's impossible for anyone to not know of him. But what's interesting is a lack of any information regarding his past beyond a certain point. While most of his history from early 2009 a.t.b and onwards is well known, not many people pay attention to the fact that, before 2009 a.t.b, there was barely any knowledge about him. While there was a representative of the noble in the courts, no one knew who Mr. Harper really was. The only thing really known at the time was that he had been given the noble title by the wishes of Empress Marianne vi Britannia, who had been asked by Duke Ashford to request that the Emperor grant Mr. Harper the title of Earl. While the minor intricacies of the reasoning at this time aren't completely known, the known point was that Mr. Harper's science team aided in the creation of the Glasgow prototype in 2007 a.t.b. This later led to the successful introduction of the Knightmare Frames into the military during the Second Pacific War in 2010 a.t.b, which was the result of rigorous testing and modifications done to the Glasgow prototype in the two and a half years leading up to the war. The fact that Mr. Harper's science team helped to solve the issues that the Ganymede displayed during the Emblem of Blood period, while the Ashford Foundation's top scientists had been unable to solve the issues, was one of the most helpful factors in gaining the title of Earl. The insistence of Empress Marianne, who was considered to be high in the Emperor's favour, on granting the title was also a helpful factor._

 _One of the most notable things about Mr. Harper however, is the fact that there are no true records of his existence before 2007 a.t.b. While facts had been scarce after his granting of a noble title, no one knows of any records that indicate his existence before that point. The records about him were few and far in between when he gained attention after being given a noble title, and most of those have been debunked as fabrications made by other individuals of the time period. Finding anything concrete before that point seems to be next to impossible. While many speculate over his past, his history has become yet another victim of the conflicts of that era. It's also not just confined to Mr. Harper, as there were many notable individuals whose histories have been lost due to the nature of that time period. However, there is even less information on his past than even these other individuals. His past was lucky in how far back it goes. But unfortunately, it was still a partial victim of that time period, and will most likely remain that way."_

 _\- Excerpt from "Of Nations and Empires", 2038 a.t.b._

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 **The Illusive Knight**

 **Chapter 1: A Hospital of Secrets**

Eliza Finlay had not been prepared for the events of her day today.

Her day had started out like any other. She woke up in the morning, had breakfast and made herself presentable while she listened to the report on TV which was detailing a recent crime that had been committed in the local area. Due to it, there was most likely going to be an increase of work for her at the hospital she worked at. Well, at least it would mean that she'd be likely to get some extra pay. It would be useful since the noble in charge of the area was so intent on making common products barely affordable to commoners.

As she thought of this, she decided to get ready and head out. The aqua haired woman brushed a strand of hair out of her face which fell to rest on her shoulder. She stared at her reflection as a pair of maroon coloured eyes and a soft face stared back, examining her look for the day. Nothing fancy of course, but she did want to make sure that her look was suitable for a nurse like herself as she walked the streets. She had thrown on a pair of regular jeans and a plain sky blue shirt that hugged her lithe frame, and, after giving a nod of approval to herself, she headed for the door. She grabbed her windbreaker jacket from the rack, throwing it on as she exited the door of her apartment.

Once she had locked up, she started off to work. Since her apartment was near the hospital she worked at, she had no issue walking to work each day. As she walked down sidewalk after sidewalk, she kept an eye out for the ads in the store windows. She had found some pretty good bargains on her way to work everyday, so why not take notice for later? After all, it wasn't as if she could really afford the regular prices around here. She still couldn't believe that this city had some of the _lower_ prices compared to many around the Empire.

Everything seemed to be normal for her when she entered the hospital. She checked into the main office and, after making sure that there wasn't any new updates on the patient's she usually worked on, she went to go get her uniform. Once she got her uniform on and put her street clothes away, she was about to report in for nurse duty and head off on her everyday checks around the hospital. It was at that moment, however, that her day took a shift in direction.

Doctor Quincy, the head doctor at the hospital, had called her and requested that she meet him in one of the intensive care rooms of the hospital. This was not unusual, as she frequently helped patients in that unit. What was unusual was the fact that it was him who had requested it. Usually, Dr. Quincy would not personally request a nurse to meet him for their duties. Those types of requests were usually given to someone else who would then give the message to the nurse. So to have him personally request a nurse to meet him was strange.

As she walked down the hallways, she couldn't help but begin to wonder about what was going on. The hallways, usually buzzing with activity, were silent. The only thing that it could have meant was that someone had ordered that there be no activity in this area of the hospital. That, combined with Dr. Quincy's request, made her uneasy about what was happening. As she kept going down the hallways, she realized that this was one of the areas of the ICU that was usually restricted to Dr. Quincy and a select few others. The fact that she was entering a restricted area raised her unease even further.

When she arrived at the room Dr. Quincy had specified, she noticed that the "occupied" panel was slotted into the door. That, in itself, wasn't too strange. She had already assumed that Dr. Quincy was going to talk to her about a patient, as that was the only explanation of why he would call her down to the ICU on such short notice. When she tried the door, however, she found that it was locked. She frowned at that. Why was the door locked? According to what she knew, and from the lack of activity in the halls, there shouldn't be any reason for the door to be locked. The only reasons the door would be locked was if there had been an emergency that had to be resolved in the room itself which would be indicated by a light next to the door, or the patient was someone who didn't want their identity known, which she would have been informed of. Otherwise, the door would remain unlocked during daytime hours.

As she was about to knock on the door to the room, it suddenly opened. Standing in front of her was a man in his early 40's, holding himself in a way that simply radiated a sense of comfort to those around him. The man, standing at 5"8', was wearing a doctor's uniform and was also holding a clipboard in his right hand. His hair, cut short, was light brown in colour. A finely trimmed beard surrounded the soft features on his face, helping to accentuate them. His eyes were a sky blue, and seemed to be twinkling with energy. That look of energy in his eyes betrayed the seemingly relaxed nature that he held. But there was also another look in his eyes, almost hidden by the energy in them. One that made him look as if he had seen much in his life, far more than a man his age should have to bear witness to. These eyes were now staring right into Eliza's, as a look of recognition came upon the man's face.

"Good morning, Nurse Finlay." The man said, giving her a small nod.

Eliza immediately held herself straighter, returning the nod and saying, "Good morning, Doctor Quincy."

Dr. Quincy moved out of the way of the door as she said this, beckoning her to enter the room. As she entered, her gaze immediately settled on the figure resting on the bed inside. She was faintly aware of the door being closed behind her as she walked towards the patient's bed, the locking mechanism shutting her and Dr. Quincy away from the outside world. After ensuring that the door had locked properly, Dr. Quincy walked up to Eliza, stopping right next to her. She remained silent, observing the man in the bed while waiting for Dr. Quincy to explain why he called her here.

The doctor allowed the silence to remain for a few moments, as he also observed the man laying in the bed. Then, he began to speak.

"Nurse Finlay, the reports I've been given indicate that you have worked with many intensive care patients over the time you've been here. Is that correct?" Dr. Quincy asked, turning to face her.

Eliza nodded, her gaze remaining on the man on the bed. "Yes," she replied, "that's correct Doctor." Something about the man kept her gaze locked squarely on him, but she could not seem to figure out why that was.

The man didn't seem to be out of the ordinary. From what she could see, the man seemed to be in his fifties. She guessed that he was around 6 feet in height, as she could tell that he was at least half a head taller then she was. His body, while not overly muscular, was obviously kept in shape. As for his facial features, his hair was close-cropped and a silver-grey in colour. Accompanying a firm jaw, the man's face was pleasant to look at. To her, the man looked like he was just another person, another face in a mass of people. But there was something about being in his presence that changed that opinion. Something about him that just demanded her attention, but she couldn't figure out what could be causing it.

"Good. I was correct then in my decision to choose you for this job." Dr. Quincy said. He then followed up what he said with a small chuckle. "It's strange, isn't it?" he asked.

"What is?" she responded, a look of confusion on her face as she turned to him.

"You can't seem to tear your gaze away from him without some effort, can you?" he asked. Eliza began to flush a bit, but before she could say anything, he continued. "Don't worry, I'm not trying to insinuate anything. In fact, it was the same for me." His gaze turned back to the patient, observing him once more. "There's just something about him that draws your gaze, and makes you want to pay attention to him. An impressive presence, especially considering he's unconscious right now. As it is, I'm shocked he's not in a coma."

"A coma?" Eliza questioned. "How badly was he hurt?"

Dr. Quincy began to walk closer to the bed, and Eliza followed suit, waiting to be informed more about the patient that she would obviously be overseeing. After a few moments, he began to speak again, his tone more grave than a few moments prior. "Nurse, let me make this absolutely clear. You are not to mention anything about what's happening in this room to anyone else. This is to be kept completely secret, as no one outside of the two of us along with a handful of others know about this. If you speak about this to anyone else… Well, lets just say that there will be severe repercussions. Am I understood?"

Eliza paled slightly. What in the world was going on? Why was he demanding secrecy about this?

"Well Nurse? What's your answer?" he demanded.

Eliza gulped. "I-I understand, Doctor."

"Good." he responded, his tone returning to how it was previously. "I apologize if I frightened you slightly. Unfortunately, I was asked to ensure no one knows about this patient. Apparently, Arca wants to keep the fact that he's here a secret."

"Arca sir?" Eliza asked, confusion etching itself onto her face.

Dr. Quincy simply waved his hand in dismissal. "Don't worry too much about it Nurse. Arca is simply a heavy investor in this hospital. He has a… continuing interest maintaining it." As he was talking, he picked up the clipboard that was residing at the end of the patient's bed.

He held out the clipboard to Eliza which she then took, skimming through the documents as she moved to the side of the patient's bed. At her indication that she was done reading, he continued. "The patient was admitted a few hours ago with severe wounds. A few small punctures were found on the chest of the patient with obvious exit wounds on his back which were much larger than the entrance wounds, indicating that whatever was used caused more extreme damage upon the exit of the body. The wound shows that the weapon passed through the major artery connected to the heart. The back of his body was what drew my attention however, as the exit wounds on the patient aren't very clean. They appear to be less controlled in comparison to the entrance wounds, very different compared to something like a bullet. In observation, it almost appears like something… exploded, for lack of a better word, out of the back of the patient. I currently have no idea of a weapon that could have such a small entry point and such a devastating exit."

He paused for a moment, seemingly in thought. After a few moments, he resumed, "If it's even a weapon at all, although there isn't anything I can think of outside of some sort of weapon that could cause this amount of damage with such a clean entry."

Dr. Quincy moved slightly, positioning himself closer to the head of the patient. "The wounds were serious enough that the patient had to have lost consciousness from blood loss at least 6 minutes after the wounds were inflicted, no more than 10 minutes if he was able to slow down the bleeding. The latter is more likely as blood was found on his hands which matched his own, indicating the patient attempted to slow it down. While that alone was bad, there was more I found while I was attempting to find the best way to close up the wounds." He pointed at the patients chest, completely bandaged up due to the surgery that would have occurred under Dr. Quincy's care if the wounds were that bad.

"One of the primary wounds indicates that whatever caused these injuries cut through part of the trachea and caused his oxygen intake to be severely reduced, as well as causing him to bleed. From what I could tell, this wouldn't have affected the bleeding as much as the heart wound, as it seems as if he had something to help him apply pressure and stop the bleeding there. Unfortunately, stopping the bleeding there only caused blood to flow into the lungs, causing an even lower amount of oxygen to enter them." Dr. Quincy shook his head. "It's amazing though. Even with the amount of bleeding and the oxygen deprivation he went through due to the clogging of the alveoli, his brain still responds to stimuli and is at normal levels consistent with REM sleep which indicates he's not in a coma. With the amount of time he would have most likely went with a near non-existent level of oxygen along with the amount of bleeding he had to deal with, I'm quite surprised he's not dead. The amount of damage was serious enough to warrant the fear. But when I put him through the scans, everything showed up fine."

Eliza nodded in understanding. By all rights, the man shouldn't be here in such a non-lethal position. While she wondered how it could be possible, she shook it off. If Dr. Quincy didn't know, then she most certainly wouldn't understand.

Dr. Quincy continued without bothering to look up. "After I patched up those wounds, I checked him over for any others. I don't know what I was expecting, but the wounds I mentioned seemed to be the only life threatening wounds on his person. There are other wounds I've treated, but they're not nearly as large of a concern to the patient."

While Dr. Quincy was talking, Eliza had been observing the patient from the side of his bed. She could see the areas where the wounds had been inflicted, taking notice of the varying layers of bandages over the man's body. She glanced at the machines monitoring his vitals, a steady beeping noise indicating they were holding stable.

Dr. Quincy moved to stand on the opposite side of the bed, his gaze directed at Eliza. "As you probably noticed, I've put everything else about his current condition including the non threatening wounds in the documents that you skimmed through." he said. He turned his attention to the patient once more, observing his face. "You've probably assumed you're going to be taking care of him for the foreseeable future, correct?" At Eliza's nod, he grabbed a key that was visible in his coat pocket and handed it to her. She could tell from the tag on the keychain that it was to the room she was standing in.

"While you take care of the patient," he continued, "you will report to me and me alone. No one else is to be informed about this patient. You and I are the only ones who will have access to this room unless I inform you otherwise. No one else is allowed to enter. If any complications arise, you are to inform me immediately." His gaze returned to stare into Eliza's eyes once more. "Is that understood?" he asked.

"Yes Doctor." Eliza said. How could she not understand? If she didn't follow the Doctor's orders, she would most likely lose her job. It was as simple as that.

"Good." Dr. Quincy responded as he turned to move for the door. "If there are no further questions, then I shall take my leave. There are a few issues around the hospital I want to personally deal with. Good day, Nurse Finlay."

"Good day, Doct-" Eliza stopped before she could finish her sentence. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something. Her gaze turned to the bed as her attention focused on the man. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw movement coming from the bed. But that wasn't possible, was it? While an unconscious victim could easily regain consciousness, it was extremely improbable with the sedatives being pumped through their system to keep them under while being healed. The level of sedatives were constantly maintained in order to prevent them from waking up. So the man couldn't have been moving. Could he?

"Is there something wrong, Nurse?" Dr. Quincy asked, a look of concern coming over his face as he turned to face her again.

"I-I don't know." Eliza said, moving closer to the bed while beginning an inspection of the man. Everything seemed to be in place, the man remaining in the same position he had been the whole time she and Dr. Quincy were talking. "I thought I saw movement coming from the patient."

Dr. Quincy began to move towards the bed, a frown beginning to form on his face. "What? Are you certain you saw movement?" While he was uncertain about the possibility that the patient had moved, he wasn't going to simply dismiss Eliza's claims as impossible like some doctors of the nobility would. He'd seen enough of the impossible to know that there's always a chance something unexpected could happen.

Eliza nodded in response to his question as she continued to check the patient over. As Dr. Quincy moved to check the patient as well, Eliza turned her attention to the monitor's displaying the patient's vitals. The beeping had remained steady this entire time, and the display showed no change in his status. She had turned around, about to speak again so she could apologize to Dr. Quincy for worrying him when the beeping began to change. She turned her head back towards the display and her eyes widened. The display was showing that the patient's vitals were rising rapidly.

"Doctor, his vitals are spiking!" Eliza shouted. She immediately began moving, her instincts as a nurse taking over. She began to switch through the feeds recording extra detail about each of his vitals and committing to memory as many of them as she could.

"What?!" Dr. Quincy shouted, a look of shock coming over his face as his head snapped up to face her. "Arca said that he shouldn't be up for at least a week!"

"I-I-I don't know sir! All I know is that his vitals are spiking!" Eliza responded. How could this be happening? The sedatives should have been able to keep him under for as long as they needed until he was stable enough to wake up!

She took a quick glance at the patient, and saw him beginning to move. The movements were minor, merely his fingers and toes trying to curl in and out, but it was enough to know that the machines weren't giving them false information. It was obvious what was happening to the patient: he was waking up. She tore her gaze away from the patient and turned back to the display.

"Sir, heart rate is 160 bpm and rising! Blood pressure is exceeding the safe zone!" She said as Dr. Quincy began to restrain the patient, taking care not to put too much pressure on the wounded areas of the patient's body.

"Get me a sedative Nurse! Also get the painkillers! If his system is acting up like this, it's quite likely that he'll be feeling extreme pain right now if he's even semi-conscious!" As he said this, he finished restraining the patient. He began to move to the side of the bed Eliza was on so that he could monitor the patient's vitals while she went off to get the sedatives and painkillers.

She went to the nearby room where they kept the sedatives and painkillers, grabbing what she needed and placing them onto one of the nearby carts. Once she had the sedatives and painkillers, along with a mismatch of other various equipment that might be needed if the situation began to get worse, she wheeled the cart over to the patient's room.

When she got there, she saw that Dr. Quincy had his head turned to the displays while the movement of the patient was becoming more and more pronounced. She wheeled the cart over to the patient's bed, taking care not to hit anything in her rush. When she got to the bed she turned to face Dr. Quincy. But before she could say anything, she noticed something about the patient. His eyes were open and were darting around as he rapidly blinked, obviously trying to bring his surroundings into focus and reduce the effects of the lights. But that wasn't the most shocking thing for her. No, the most shocking thing was the bright blue glow of his eyes. They looked wrong on someone like him. They looked like something she'd see in a science fiction movie. They looked like that of a machine. For a brief moment the patient's eyes focused on her, and she froze for a moment. Shortly thereafter, his eyes started to move around as if he was trying to figure out where he was.

"D-Doctor! I-I think he's awake!" the Eliza shouted. Dr. Quincy turned to the patient, his eyes widening as he saw the signs she had. As he began to speak, she started to pass him the sedative.

"Give me that sedative and the painkillers now!" Dr. Quincy bellowed. When he saw Eliza passing the sedative, he grabbed it immediately and began the process of injecting them. "His system hasn't healed enough for him to be conscious! He could accidentally harm his system to an irreparable state if he isn't sedated!" After he had administered the sedative, he reached out for the painkillers which Eliza then gave to him. A few moments after Dr. Quincy injected the sedatives, the patient's eyes started to slowly close and his movements began to subside. The rapid beeping of the machine began to slow down as the patient's vitals began to return to normal. Eliza let out a sigh of relief as the fear of the patient harming himself subsided.

"Keep an eye on him in case this happens again. We don't want him harming himself. Also, inform Arca of this development immediately. He'll want to know about this." Dr. Quincy said. Before Eliza could say anything, Dr. Quincy shook his head slightly, mumbling to himself before he spoke up again. "Nurse, I know you don't know what's going on, but I need you to do exactly what I say, alright?" At Eliza's slow nod, he continued. "Alright. I'll need you to go into the room over there," he said as he pointed to the door on the east side of the room, "and I'll need you to access the computer. On it there should be a contact simply named Arca. Just click it and press call. The computer will do the rest. Once it connects, just tell Arca what happened. If he asks anything, just tell him I'll be with him in a few moments. I need to ensure the patient won't wake up again and find if he damaged anything. Oh, and before you go," Dr. Quincy continued, just before she started to walk, "the first thing you'll want to say to whoever shows up on the screen is the words 'we live in darkness.' Now go!"

Eliza nodded, heading to the room that Dr. Quincy had pointed to. When she entered the room, she went to sit in front of the computer. The room itself wasn't very large, really being nothing more than a side office like the ones she'd seen before. The only thing that was different was the lack of any binders or papers on the desk. All in all, the room had a very spartan appearance.

Eliza did as Dr. Quincy requested, going into the contacts on the computer and selecting the name Arca. As soon as she did, a screen that she hadn't noticed on the wall on her left turned on and displayed the words "Connecting… Please wait…" with a progress bar underneath them. Once the progress bar had been filled, the screen flashed. A hooded figure then appeared on the screen. Judging by the state of the table behind him, the man was obviously not expecting the call.

"Who is this?" the man asked. Eliza gulped slightly at the sound of his voice. The voice spoke of authority and of a no-nonsense attitude, with something in the way he sounded making himself appear hostile. Eliza straightened herself slightly and said, "We live in darkness."

For a second, nothing was said. After a few moments, the man's hood shifted slightly as he said, "So the rest may live in the light." Eliza watched as the man raised one of his arms and began to manipulate something offscreen. After a few moments he continued, "The line is secure. What is it you want?"

"I need to speak to Arca." Eliza replied.

"Why?" the man asked as his hood shifted. It made her nervous not seeing the face of the man she was talking to, but she pushed the fear down as she spoke.

"Dr. Quincy told me to tell him about the situation the patient that Arca transferred to the hospital. The information is extremely urgent." she replied. For a few moments, there was nothing but silence. During that time, Eliza's unease grew. She liked to think that, due to her time as a nurse, she knew how to read people and get a feel for how they are. She could tell a person's emotional state with just a twitch of the hand as the only indicator that a person is nervous, or more subtle things like the slight tilt of the head telling her either interest or confusion. This was all due to the amount of people she had to help in the ICU helping people that could be quite unpredictable. However, this man was unreadable. It wasn't just the cloak covering him, but it was the complete lack of body movement in the moment that kept her from reading him.

"Very well." the man replied a few moments later, his tone indicating he was unsure if the conversation was needed but knew he had to have it. "But first, is there anyone else in the room with you?"

"No." Eliza replied.

"Good." the man replied, his tone becoming calmer. "I apologize if I appeared to be rude. You must understand, only Dr. Quincy uses the terminal you're on. When you showed up I thought… never mind." The man's hood shook back and forth for a moment. "Now, I believe proper introductions are in order, miss…?

"Finlay, sir. Eliza Finlay." she replied.

"Ms. Finlay." the man responded, his hood dropping and then rising, indicating a nod. "Well then Ms. Finlay, I am Arca. You said you had urgent information?"

Eliza's eyes widened slightly as she nodded, surprise overcoming her. This was Arca? She had been expecting someone who would flounder themselves around and display their wealth in the background of the call like a noble or a wealthy businessman, not a man who inhabited spartan accommodations and hid his identity. That was the norm for other sponsored hospitals, at least. Most sponsors of hospitals couldn't help but display their power, even if it was only minor. So why didn't he?

"Well Ms. Finlay?" the newly identified Arca said.

"Oh! Sorry…" Eliza exclaimed. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment for getting lost in her thoughts. "The patient you had transferred over to the hospital a few hours ago, the one currently in ICU?" she asked. At the shift in the hood, which she interpreted as a nod, she continued, "Well, after Dr. Quincy briefed me about my duties regarding the patient, he woke up temporarily."

The silence that followed the statement was deafening. Eliza was about to repeat what she said in the belief that there had been a glitch in the connection when Arca said, "What."

Eliza remained silent after what he said. He obviously wasn't expecting this. As the silence reigned on, she couldn't keep her mind from wandering back to the patient and his eyes. Eyes that gave off an unnatural glow and, for a brief moment, looked as if he was staring into her very soul and analyzing her. Her thoughts snapped back to the monitor as Arca spoke up again, his words coming out slowly and deliberately, "What do you mean, he woke up?"

Eliza gulped, her voice coming out uneasily at the sudden change in the man's demeanour. "I-It means what it sounds like sir." She then recounted exactly what happened, making sure to leave nothing out, as she doubted that neither Dr. Quincy nor the man speaking with her would appreciate her leaving anything important out. Immediately after she had finished, Arca spoke. "Where is Dr. Quincy right now?"

"He's tending to the patient right now sir." she replied. "He told me to inform you of what occurred while he made sure that the patient hadn't harmed himself or reopened any of his wounds. He should be done in a few minutes."

Just as she finished saying that, the door to the room opened and Dr. Quincy entered the room. "Nurse." he said as he walked to the computer. Upon seeing Arca on the screen, the Doctor gave a nod and said, "Arca. It's been a while since I last spoke with you."

"Yes it has been, Doctor." Arca replied. "I believe that we need to talk more in depth about your patient."

Dr. Quincy nodded as he said, "Yes, I believe we do." He turned to Eliza and said, "Nurse Finlay, the patient has been stabilized. Please see to him and begin your duties. If it seems like he's about to wake up again, inform me immediately."

Eliza nodded, and began to make her way to the door. But before she could open it, Dr. Quincy spoke up again. "Nurse?"

"Yes doctor?" she asked.

After a moment of silence, he continued, "Remember what I told you at the beginning of all of this. Make sure you don't forget it."

Eliza paled slightly as she responded, "Yes sir." She opened the door as she walked out to attend to the patient. As she shut the door behind her, she couldn't help but wonder what she had gotten herself into. She steeled her resolve to see her job through, however, as she knew that she had passed the point to turn back when she had entered the room. With the thought in mind, she began her duties as she would have anyways at the hospital, overseeing another patient in her care. Yet once she reached the bed once more, she couldn't help the question that resurfaced from earlier: who is this man, and why does he seem to be considered so important?

Little did she know her questions would eventually be answered in ways she could have never imagined.

* * *

When the door to the room closed behind Eliza, Dr. Quincy waited for a few more moments. Extending a hand towards the computer, the doctor opened a small compartment hidden by its monitor. A small group of switches were revealed, and one by one he flipped them. After a few moments, a faint click could be heard as a light next to the door turned red. At the same time, a new window appeared on the screen as automatic cameras turned on, giving him a complete view of the patient and his room. Nurse Finlay was just beginning to check the patient over, most likely wanting to know of any changes he may have made when he restrained the patient. As the feeds from the cameras began to appear on the screen, the computer began to transmit identical feeds to the computer on Arca's end which allowed him to see everything of importance.

"Can the woman be trusted?" Arca asked, his tone deadly serious. It was a far cry from the lighter tone he used with the nurse.

Dr. Quincy nodded as he responded, "You know me well enough Arca. You know I wouldn't have brought her in to treat him if I had even a hint that she wasn't trustworthy. If anything, her background history gives her the perfect qualifications to oversee him."

"Very well then, doctor." Arca said, the direction his cloak was turned indicating that he was watching the feeds from the camera on a separate monitor. "I'll trust you on this. But if at any point the woman puts our plan at risk…" The warning didn't need to be finished. Dr. Quincy knew that Arca wouldn't hesitate to quietly eliminate the nurse if he felt that she might jeopardize his plans.

"I understand Arca. Now," Dr. Quincy said, as he straightened out his coat, "I believe that there are more pressing concerns we have to deal with. I assume that Nurse Finlay told you everything that happened?"

"Yes." Arca replied. "While there are a myriad of questions that I have, I'll start with the most obvious one: how did Harper manage to wake up?"

Dr. Quincy sighed, his hand moving to rub his forehead. "I'll be completely honest with you Arca. I have absolutely no idea how or why he woke up when he did. I took so long to get in here because of the fact that I was trying to figure that out myself. According to all of the scans and checks I did, the man was unconscious due to the sedatives flowing through his system and should have stayed that way for as long as we needed order for the body to begin to heal from the operations. The fact that he woke up was a complete surprise to me."

Dr. Quincy sighed as he thought about the patient. No idea indeed. There wasn't a single indicator to what had caused him to regain consciousness, or why the sedatives suddenly stopped affecting him. It's as if his body just didn't accept any of the sedatives into his system for a brief moment. The added sedatives managed to break past this temporary immunity, but he was lucky about it. While he managed to make an educated guess on the amounts needed to surpass the immunity, that's all it was: a guess. There was a slight pause as Arca most likely thought about what had just been said. After a few moments, Arca responded, "Do you think anyone could have given him something which would cause the sedatives to wear off?"

"No." Dr. Quincy responded nearly instantly, a sense of finality accompanying his statement. Before Arca had a chance to respond, Dr. Quincy continued, "While I do understand what you're thinking, it's just not possible. I know for a fact that I was the only one to even see the man before I called the nurse to come to the room. I was also with him when the symbol you told me about appeared in the air above the operating table and the man fell onto it. While I am curious to how you managed that, that's a point to talk about later. The simple matter is that there was no way anyone could have done anything to cause the patient's condition to change so rapidly."

While Dr. Quincy couldn't make out Arca's body language to judge what his reaction was, he could easily hear the sigh that escaped him. "Well then doctor," Arca replied," if that's not possible and you're at a loss to what could have caused it, then I believe I should move on to the next two questions I have. Was there any serious brain damage and how long do you think it's going to be until he'll be able to be mobile?"

Dr. Quincy suppressed a small chuckle. Of course Arca would ask about that. Always focused on when a person would be able to work effectively again above any other concerns. Dr. Quincy couldn't help but wonder sometimes if Arca was ex-military. His thinking certainly suited the mindset of the typical commander nowadays. He shook his head slightly, shelving those thoughts for a later time as he refocused to respond to Arca's question.

"Well, regarding your question about the brain damage. I haven't found anything which, if Nurse Finlay told you everything exactly how it happened, shouldn't be possible due to his injuries. If him waking up is any indication, I believe that everything in regards to his mental capabilities are in the clear. Before you ask," Dr. Quincy responded, a hand raised to stall the question he knew was coming, "no, there are no injuries that would permanently inhibit him, at least from what I could tell. Secondary observations will have to wait until his body has healed to the point where I can properly wake him up and do a thorough analysis, although knowing you the physical will have to wait until you've finished speaking with him. As for when he'll be mobile, my best estimates put him in bed for at least 2 weeks, maybe a week and a half."

"Is there any way you can speed up his recovery to be within the week, doctor?" Arca asked.

A frown came over Dr. Quincy's face. "No, I can't." he replied. He continued, not giving Arca a chance to interject with another question. "As it is I'm already pushing my estimates and my attempts to get him patched up. Frankly, if it were up to me I'd keep him in bed for the next month, maybe even two. He's got enough damage that he won't be able to engage in any strenuous activity for the next couple months at best until his body heals, possibly even longer. Even if he's in good enough condition to be woken up after a week and a half, I'm not going to let him walk around for at least a couple days to ensure that nothing goes wrong. I'm not going to jeopardize his life just because you need him for whatever you've been planning, Arca."

A silence fell after he finished what he was saying. Arca would understand what he was saying. If Arca tried to take the patient out before he had suitable time to prevent his injuries from opening up again, he wouldn't hesitate to fight tooth and nail to keep him protected, even if it meant going against Arca personally. After a few minutes of the silence as Dr. Quincy stared at Arca, a sigh could be heard from Arca's end.

"You don't have to worry, doctor. Just because we need him doesn't mean that I'm going to put his life at risk." Arca replied, as some of the tension that had built up during the silence eased. "While there are some other questions I'd like to ask," Arca said, his hood turning to face something off screen, "we're going to have to deal with a few things in Area 2 soon to ensure things are going to plan. After I'm done in the area, I'll be heading down to your hospital in California. Since I'll be in Area 2 for a week, he should be close to the point he can be woken up when I arrive. No," Arca said, hand raised to stall any arguments, "I don't expect him to be up at that point. I just want to be able to oversee Harper's recovery as soon as possible."

"Very well then, Arca." Dr. Quincy replied. "I'll be expecting you within the week."

As Dr. Quincy made to shut down the connection, Arca spoke once more. "Oh, and doctor?" he asked. At Dr. Quincy's nod, he continued, "Make sure that you don't say a word about how the patient got there."

Dr. Quincy waved in dismissal to Arca's warning. "Don't worry," he replied, "to my knowledge he was brought in with serious wounds by one of the rare few concerned citizens who paid for his expenses. While it's not common, there's still people who are willing to do that. I don't know what it was you did to get him into the operating room the way you did nor do I think I want to know. I've always followed my gut instinct on things and it's served me well, even saved a few of my patients. Right now, my gut is screaming at me that knowing how you did that will simply result in more problems for myself than it's worth."

"Very well then, doctor." Arca replied, a small shift in his hood turning to something offscreen as a muffled shout could be heard. "I'll see you when I arrive in a week. Good day, doctor."

At that, Arca shut down the communication on his end, leaving Dr. Quincy to sit and think about what was said. As he began to shut off the security measures he had activated, a sigh escaped him. While Arca was a good benefactor for the hospital, sometimes Dr. Quincy couldn't help but wonder if it was the right decision to join up with him. He helped him get his doctorate, yes, and helped him rise from simply being a nobody commoner to a well respected doctor in the span of a couple years. Those facts couldn't be disputed. But he knew the dangers of being associated with Arca. When Arca told him about his patient, he effectively ordered him to keep quiet about his presence in the hospital in order to maintain the façade of Harper giving the orders to his representative. While not explicitly saying it, Dr. Quincy knew as a fact that Arca wouldn't hesitate to have him silenced on the issue and transferring Harper to a new location if he did anything to act against him.

If questions started being raised about why Harper was suddenly in the hospital as he supposedly ordered his representative to speak on his behalf and the OSI did some digging… well, even the best fabrications have limits to how much scrutiny they can withstand before crumbling. Not only that, but if the OSI decided to perform a full investigation and found out about some of the other projects Arca asked him to research, then it would become… problematic to say the least. He'd heard enough about the shadowy enforcers of the Empire, and had no desire to experience their methods of investigation and subsequent interrogations. As he had said to Arca, he trusted his gut most of the time. In this case, his gut kept screaming at him that it was better to follow along with what Arca said while not asking too many questions.

As he rose from his seat, Dr. Quincy couldn't help but chuckle slightly. While Arca hadn't told him much about his patient besides where he came from, who he was, and warning him about his wounds, it didn't really matter. All that mattered right now was that a patient was no longer about to die, and healing could begin as his body rested. While Nurse Finlay took care of the patient, he would ensure that all relevant information about the current status of the world was gathered. After all, it wouldn't help anyone if Mr. Harper didn't have the information he needed, would it?

* * *

As the communication relay powered down and the computer returned to it's original display, Arca couldn't help but curse his bad luck. He would like nothing more than to be able to head over to the California hospital where Harper was situated in order to ensure that nothing else went wrong. But unfortunately, whatever gave him such rotten luck decided to have a laugh as a problematic situation arose, causing Arca to divert his original flight in order to take care of the problem.

"I said, put that down!"

Arca sighed as a shout was heard from the room nearby, shattering his thoughts. Something was going on in the other room, and he already didn't like the sound of it. As he exited the communications room, varying shouts could be heard coming from the main room's occupants as he tried to make out what was going on.

When he turned the corner of the hallway and entered the main room, he stopped in place. His gaze was directed to the corner of the room where Reaper was sitting in front of a desk. A mess of chemicals and test tubes could be seen on the desk, sitting next to a computer displaying a document of some sort. At one end of the desk, Ghost could be seen holding a vial of some sort of substance as she eyed it with a look of curiosity. Right next to her, Arca could see Reaper with a scowl on his face as he reached for the vial. Ghost just kept moving around, keeping Reaper from grabbing the vial.

"Why should I?" Ghost replied.

The scowl on Reaper's face deepened as he replied, "Because I haven't been able to complete my analysis on it!"

Ghost turned to Reaper and raised her eyebrow. "Really? You, analyzing something? If it wasn't for this desk of yours, I wouldn't believe it. Besides," she said as she twirled around the vial, "wasn't analysis supposed to be someone else's job?"

A scoff came from Reaper. "As if I would be willing to let anyone else analyze this. We need info on this thing as soon as possible, and I'm the only one who can do it properly within a reasonable amount of time."

Before Ghost could come up with another retort, Arca spoke up from where he was. "Ghost, just give him the vial and let him work."

The two individuals turned to face him. Arca knew that Ghost would try, if he let her, to antagonize Reaper further. Upon seeing him however, Ghost simply sighed as she handed the vial back to Reaper. He snatched the vial out of her hand and immediately returned to his desk, grumbling something under his breath. Most likely some retort or insult to Ghost that wouldn't ever hear the light of day. Arca walked up to him, purposefully keeping himself from looking at Ghost as she was probably pouting again, as she did whenever he interrupted her "fun" with Reaper. After a few moments, he heard the sound of footsteps which indicated that she disappeared down the hall, probably off to one of the spare rooms.

"Reaper, what have you found out?" Arca asked, as his gaze moved to the vial which was now resting on the desk. Reaper turned to face the vial as well, the scowl that he had lessening into a frown.

"Not much. At least, not much that's concrete." Reaper replied. "While I do have the basics on this thing, I can't tell much. Not much without actually testing it on someone that is. Doesn't help that our Codes neutralize harmful chemicals and prevent the effects of these sort of things from affecting us. Otherwise, I'd try it on myself to get a full understanding of it"

Arca turned to face him as he asked, "Tell me what you know then."

Reaper nodded, moving his chair in front of the computer. "Well then, for starters I should tell you that this substance isn't anything that I've seen before. While it's properties are similar to some drugs out there, its too different to be any sort of medical drug. I'd say it's some sort of new street drug that was going to be distributed, but…"

Arca picked up what Reaper was about to say "But it's unlikely, given that we picked it up during the raid on the facility."

Reaper nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and that's just the problem. I've been looking at those documents we picked up from that report the site director was going to send out, and I'm concerned with the implications it has." He brought up a file on the computer and began to scroll through it, stopping at different points to show Arca. "According to the files on the project, this substance is one version sent out by the Directorate. How many versions were sent out and to where is a question of it's own, but the document doesn't say. One thing in the document really worries me, however. You'd better read it yourself."

At that statement, Reaper moved slightly to allow Arca to read the document. After Arca read the document, he turned to face Reaper. "You mean to tell me that…"

"Yes." Reaper replied, his face giving away his displeasure. "The Directorate was trying to find a way to accelerate Geass development in subjects." He turned to face the vial again. "This little thing is one of the many variations sent out to multiple facilities to use as testing material. If I had to hazard a guess, I doubt any of the versions are even remotely similar past their intended purpose."

Arca didn't respond as he was lost in thought. A possible Geass accelerator? If the Directorate was able to finish the project, it might be problematic for him. If they could get multiple people with Geass to it's later stages…

He shuddered at the thought. His plans already have enough complications as it is. Now he may have to factor in yet another one. Not only that, but he had no clue if they were close to completion or not. He asked Reaper, "Do we know how close the project is to completion?"

Reaper shook his head. "Unfortunately no. Apparently the data from the separate sites wasn't sent to anyone, not even their central headquarters, wherever it is. The only indication I got that there even were any other versions was a reference to an order the head scientist received which stated this was one of the iterations. All I know is that this site only got the substance sometime within the last week, two tops."

Arca remained still at Reaper's response. If he felt anything, he refused to show it. After a few moments, Arca asked, "Is there anything else of note?"

Reaper shrugged. "Not much in regards to the substance or any other purposes the Directorate has for it. As much as I hate them, I've got to give them credit regarding their security systems for offsite access. No one's getting in there without the proper procedures. I'm going to continue analyzing it, but I'm not sure I'll get much off of it. Since we took this thing, I doubt that I'm going to get the best results. For all I know, this is one of the batches that won't work. There is one little fact I'd like to inform you of, however."

Reaper turned to face Arca, his eyes becoming hard. "The only truly established fact we have on this is known due to the few tests done to the Geass user they had on site. Apparently, the side effects are quite nasty. It doesn't say what they are as we raided the place just as the scientist was putting in the info, but whatever it is, it was bad enough to be regarded as 'serious' side effects. Not life threatening apparently, but possibly debilitating at it's worst. No telling what those side effects could do to someone who doesn't have Geass."

Arca's hood shifted slightly in a manner which Reaper had come to associate with concern. "I hope we won't have to find out." Arca replied. "Keep analyzing this. If there's anything useful we can glean from it, we need to get it. We'll be here until the end the week since we have to do some cleanup operations before we head off to the California Memorial Hospital to oversee Harper's recovery."

Reaper nodded and turned back to the computer. "Understood. I'll do everything I can." he responded.

"Good." Arca replied, as he turned away to head into the hallway. "I'll be resting until 0600 hours. Then we'll be moving to pull anything else we can from the databases and 'neutralize' anything we missed. Do make sure you get some sleep, Reaper. I don't need you exhausted for tomorrow."

Reaper's face softened up a bit as he turned back to face him. "Thanks for the concern, Arca. I'll do my best not to overexert myself."

Arca's hood shifted in the form of a nod. He then turned and walked away, heading to one of the rooms to rest. Reaper turned back to the vial and picked it up again. "Well then," he said as he examined the vial yet again, "let's see what type of secrets you hold."

He turned the vial around, as it's label became visible to him yet again. He'd already read it multiple times as if re-reading it would solve everything. One of the first items they picked up, he'd been studying it any moment he had since they acquired it. With a sigh, he put down the vial to re-read some of his notes on the computer, the name of the project as seen on the label echoing in his mind.

Project Refrain was going to be a tough one to crack. He knew that one for certain.

* * *

 **So, that's the first proper chapter done! I'll be honest here, I wasn't too sure where the best place to end was. As it is, I'm still not sure if I stopped it at the best place. But it works at least. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. The next chapter is close to being finished as it is, so it shouldn't be as long of a wait either. I'm hoping to get my writing up to at least a chapter every couple of weeks to a month. I'm not sure exactly if I'll be able to keep the two week schedule, but at least it's a goal to aim towards. Another thing I ask is to rate and review. Please let me know if there's areas of my writing that could use some work. Always good to get some input of where my strengths and weaknesses lie.**

 **In other news, I am looking for a beta reader if anyone's interested. Never hurts to have an extra set of eyes to look over the chapters and help with bouncing around some ideas. If anyone's interested, give me a PM and we can talk. Doesn't have to be now, but I'd really appreciate it in the future.**

 **I don't really have much to talk about right now, so I'll just end it off right here. Hope all of you enjoyed this chapter!**

 **Logging off.**

 **Gammatron942**


	3. Chapter 2: Awakening

**Hey everyone, this is Gammatron942 with another chapter of The Illusive Knight!**

 **First thing I've got to say is a big thank you to all those who have read, favourited, followed and reviewed! It's so great knowing I'm actually writing something that people are enjoying. I just hope that I'll be able to keep you all interested through this thing.**

 **There are two things I would like to mention off the bat. The first is that I'm looking for a Beta-Reader, so if you're interested or someone you know on the site may be interested, give me a shout via PM and I'll get to you as soon as possible. If anyone's interested, that'd be great.**

 **The other thing I'd like to ask is for you guys to rate and review! I'd like to know what you guys think about the story and areas where I could improve on. That, and I'd really like to interact with all you readers of the story. So please, pop into the review house and start a party or something. I don't know. Now, onto the disclaimer!**

 **I do NOT own either Mass Effect or Code Geass. They belong to Bioware and Sunrise Entertainment, in that order. The only thing I technically own are any OC's that I personally create and appear in the story. Any similarities to characters outside of Mass Effect and Code Geass that I do not explicitly mention that I am basing them off of in either the beginning or ending Author's Note are not intentional. Same goes for any similarities to other OC's by other authors.**

 **Hope you all enjoy, and I'll see you at the bottom.**

* * *

"Anyone there?" – Normal speaking

" **What is that?** " – Character thoughts

" **Intruder Alert!** " – Speaker/Computer text

" _Command, this is Alpha-1."_ – Radio/Communications

" _ **Die!**_ _"_ – Geass command

* * *

" _While not many people know about this, multiple rumours have spread around about the history and the rise of Jack Harper. Some rumours say that he was involved in the Emblem of Blood incident, and that he was a close ally to the 98_ _th_ _Emperor, only making himself known after he had managed to make it seem as if he was a different man to prevent any enemies from eliminating him. Some say that he was a defector from the E.U. Others say that he was part of an unknown intelligence agency. There are many more rumours like this, some within reason and some completely insane. But within all these rumours, one piece of information remains true to all of them._

 _That piece of information was the first publicly known whereabouts of Mr. Harper which came from the California Memorial Hospital, where he was apparently recovering from unknown circumstances in 2009 a.t.b. This was the first time that anyone was able to say that they knew where Mr. Harper was, but there is little else known. What we do know is that the knowledge about Mr. Harper being in the hospital was kept a tight secret until after his first official court debut. Accounts from other employees of the hospital tell of a wing of the hospital becoming restricted and only one nurse, a miss Eliza Finlay, being allowed in. Given the fact that the hospital was owned by Mr. Harper's business, most of the employees assumed that it was either a nobleman who paid extra in order to conceal his identity and had close ties to him or Mr. Harper himself that was being treated there. At the time, however, they were being paid extra to keep quiet about it until Mr. Harper's debut. Until the investigations by other nobles, no one in the hospital had paid any attention to what was going on._

 _When asked in an interview, Miss Finlay declined to comment on anything regarding Mr. Harper. She said that the status of the patient that had been treated in the restricted ward and anything regarding the individual couldn't be divulged by her. The only one who had that ability at the hospital was the head doctor, Dr. Quincy. Unfortunately, Mr. Quincy refused to divulge any information as he said that it wasn't his place to say and would be a breach of his Doctor-Patient confidentiality agreement. While we might never know of the true circumstances behind Mr. Harper's hospitalization or why there has been no knowledge of him before this point, we can at least confirm that this was the starting point of Mr. Harper's journey to success within Britannia."_

 _\- Excerpt from "The Rise of Harper Industries", 2040 a.t.b._

* * *

 **The Illusive Knight**

 **Chapter 2: Awakening**

There's a certain level of frustration a person can take. Some can handle much more frustration than others. Sometimes the frustration can be the result of something another person might find to be of no consequence. But if there's one thing all people can agree on, is that the frustration resulting from a lack of progress is one all people have experienced and usually hate. This frustration is what led to one man's current situation.

As Reaper walked down the halls of the California Memorial Hospital on his way to meet up with Arca, he couldn't help but sigh. He was going to deliver his latest report on his studies into Project Refrain, and what did he have? Nothing. Not one thing he could discover.

The day after Reaper began his studies, Arca oversaw the clean up operation for the Directorate facility. Everything they could get their hands on, they took to try and study. At least, that was the initial plan. What nobody had been expecting, nor could have expected, was how the Directorate somehow managed to bypass the blocks that both Reaper and Ghost had put into their systems. It was supposed to prevent the Directorate from accessing anything until they were finished. Unfortunately, it didn't stop them, even though it should have been impossible for them to breach their blocks. This, however, lead to a further problem.

The problem began when one of Ghost's men discovered explosives at key structural points of the facility. Arca had immediately ordered everyone out of the facility as they took everything they could. While everyone was trained to disarm bombs, it seems as if the Directorate was a bit paranoid in their procedures. Not only were the bombs of a make that no one had seen before and, from the brief look he got of them, complicated to unnecessarily extreme levels, but there was also the chance that the explosives could be powerful enough to cause a chain detonation. Wouldn't matter if the Directorate couldn't trigger every bomb, they might only need one of them to go off. Thus the evacuation order by Arca.

It turned out to be an extremely wise decision. The Directorate, somehow managing to break through the blocks they had set up, managed to trigger a remote detonation of the bombs. The resulting detonation was enough to completely destroy the facility, leaving no traces of it's existence. Arca had ordered people to sift through the rubble to see if there was anything, but it was for naught. The Directorate facility was gone, and anything they couldn't grab was destroyed along with them.

The only real good news was that one of the men had managed to get most of the data from the mainframes onto one of their data drives. Unfortunately, the data on said drive was heavily encrypted by multiple security systems. The only reason any of the files were readable at all was that they were open at the time of the raid and hadn't been transferred to the primary mainframe to be encrypted. That's where Reaper hit his roadblock, as most of the preliminary data on Project Refrain came from an incomplete draft of a report which was being written at the time of the raid, transferred directly onto a data drive which bypassed the encryption process. He, along with several others, had been attempting to decrypt the data after he had gained all the information he could by his analysis of the substance. Unfortunately, said analysis didn't really provide much except for the chemical composition. The only way to know more would be to test it on someone, and he was not willing to attempt to find out by risking someone to whatever side effects it may have, especially on a non-Geass user.

He absentmindedly knocked on the door to the room Arca said to meet him in, not even fully realizing where he was. He was too lost in thought for it to register where he was until the door opened, Arca's voice suddenly able to be heard as he spoke with someone.

"…and as unlikely as it is, I still want you to order your people to continue their sweeps of the area. If they had a facility there, who knows what other things they may have. Once finished, I want you to send a few of your men into survey the land we purchased. Since we didn't expect to find a facility on the islands, I don't want to go in blind. If they find anything at all, have them hold back and inform me." Arca could be heard saying.

As Reaper entered the room, he could hear Ghost reply, "Yes sir. I'll see to it immediately. Is there anything else you want me to know?"

"Only one thing." Arca replied. "Make sure that you keep adherence to Gothis Protocol. I don't want-"

"-anyone to find out about us. If I break it, then there'll be serious problems." Ghost finished for Arca. While he couldn't see her from his position near the door, Reaper could tell she wasn't terribly concerned about the risks on these sorts of operations. From the indicator lights he could see on the wall, he assumed that Arca was talking to Ghost over a vid-call. As Reaper walked further into the room, he could see Arca standing at the desk at the far end of the room. His head was turned to the right, looking at a screen which Reaper couldn't see from his position.

As Reaper came to a halt a few feet away from Arca, he couldn't help but let a small shiver go down his spine. While he hadn't said anything or done anything else to indicate it, Reaper instinctively knew Arca was aware he was standing behind him. He knew he was there the moment he entered the room. No matter the situation, it always felt as if Arca had his eyes on everything in his surroundings. Watching everything, looking for any signs of trouble. Reaper had simply come to the conclusion that it was a habit that Arca had become extremely proficient at due to the nature of his past life. After all, someone of his ability and skill level wouldn't have gotten where he had been if he wasn't among the best.

"I'm glad you understand." Arca replied. "Very well then. Good luck on your mission Ghost. Be careful out there."

"Thank you sir." Ghost could be heard in reply. The light that Reaper had seen went out, signifying the end of the call. Reaper had to give it to her, while she could be insufferable at times when outside the field, the moment she started an operation you wouldn't believe she was the same person.

Reaper remained silent as Arca continued to stare at the desk in the corner of the room, his hands dancing around a keyboard in front of him. He knew that Arca was doing something important, and that he would be spoken to when Arca was ready. Most likely it was in regard to some final details for Ghost.

As Reaper waited for Arca to acknowledge his presence, he couldn't help but let his eyes wander. While he hadn't stepped into the room before, he had heard Dr. Quincy mention how this room would give Arca everything he needed for the time being. At first, Reaper didn't really believe it would have everything that Arca wanted. After all, this was just a hospital. How could it have everything that Arca needed to manage his assets? Now, however, he could understand the doctor had been talking about.

Rows of monitors lined the walls of what was once a normal office within the hospital. Each monitor on the right hand wall displayed multiple security feeds from all over the hospital. Each and every location of the hospital was covered, every feed available for Arca in an instant. The other wall had a separate set of monitors on them. Documents, reports, maps and more were displayed in a manner that could only make sense to the person who organized them. He couldn't help but wonder if there was more to this room than he was seeing. It would certainly be like Arca to have something hidden from the others, and he had no doubt after seeing this that Arca had a hand in designing this room to suit his needs. It was hard to gain the his trust, even after working with him for so long.

Arca's movement to face the security feeds brought Reaper's attention back to him. He followed Arca's gaze towards the feed, and his eyes widened slightly before returning to normal at the sight of the man on the screen. Even knowing what Arca had planned wasn't able to completely hide his surprise that it actually worked without any complications. Arca began by asking, "What have you found out on Project Refrain?"

"Not much, unfortunately." He replied, his face turning sour at the thought of the project. "Outside of the initial data that I've already told you about, I haven't been able to find out much. Most of the substances used to make this thing are hard to identify, and I have no idea what those things would do on their own, much less combined. Unfortunately, I can't really do much without actually testing it on someone."

A small sigh escaped from Arca. "Unfortunate. I would have liked to know more about it without testing it. What about the data drive?"

Reaper shook his head as he replied, "Nothing from that either. I've got people trying to decode it, but the Directorate's encryption on this is extremely heavy. Nothing even similar to what we've seen before. I hope we'll get a breakthrough soon, but I don't really know how long it'll take to fully decode it."

Arca's hood only shifted as a response. "Very well then." he replied after a few moments of silence."Keep working on it. I want all of that data as soon as possible."

"Understood." Reaper replied. Silence came over them as they kept their eyes fixed on the monitor in front of them. In that feed was Harper, sedated and still unconscious as Nurse Finlay was checking up on him.

Arca was the first to break the silence. "Dr. Quincy says that Harper has had enough time to heal, at least enough for him to be awake. I plan to have Dr. Quincy wake him up shortly."

Reaper nodded in response. It would make sense that Arca would want to have him up as soon as possible. "Do you think he'll be willing to help?" Reaper ask, his gaze turning slightly towards Arca.

"I doubt that he'd refuse. If I know his personality as well as I believe I do, then it's going to go against everything he believes in if he refuses. It's just not how he operates." Arca replied, his tone even.

Reaper frowned. "If you know his personality? How can you just assume he'll want to help? For all you know he might want to disappear, or he might even resent you for bringing him here!"

"He'll help. I can assure you of that." Arca replied.

After a few moments without a word spoken, Reaper spoke up again. "Let me be there when he wakes up."

The response from Arca was immediate. "No."

Anger began to well up within Reaper, as he replied, "No? What do you mean 'no'? Out of all of us here, I'm probably the best one to to help him and convince him!"

Arca's hood shifted to face Reaper as he replied, his tone remaining neutral. "I mean it. I'll be the one to talk to him. In fact, I don't want you in his presence unless I say so."

When no explanation was forthcoming, Reaper spoke again as he let his anger seep into his voice. "What do you mean, you don't want me to even be in his presence? I've known Jack for the longest amount of time out of any of us, yet you wont let me use that to our advantage? What, do you think you know him better than I do?"

"No, I don't know him that well." Arca replied. "But I'm not going to risk having Harper asking questions about you, questions that would cause quite a few complications with the plan."

Reaper stared at Arca incredulously. "That's it?! That's what you're worried about? Him asking questions about the people who brought him here?"

"Yes." Arca replied as he turned his body to fully face Reaper. "If he starts asking questions about you, it will lead to me having to reveal myself. If I reveal who I am to him, I know he would refuse to work with me due to what he believes I've become. It would be a false belief, but it would be enough to destroy any chance of the plan working."

Reaper scoffed. "You wanna talk about revealing yourself? Fine! Then how's it any better that you go and talk to him? He'd recognize you then as well!"

"He wouldn't be able to. I both hold myself differently and sound completely different than I did when he knew me. Even then, he wouldn't have gotten a proper read on me due to the short amount off time he had to observe me. I would seem like a completely different person. He won't pick up on my identity that easily." Arca replied. "All he'd have is suspicions, and he wouldn't act on them until he had full proof to confront me with it."

"Oh, so that's what you think will work, just because you act different? Fine! Disregarding all of that, what do you think that you'll be able to say that will influence him? He's certainly not going to accept his situation, much less accept the word of perceived stranger as fact!" Reaper replied, his voice getting close to yelling at Arca.

"All I have to do is appeal to how he now has a second chance to save humanity from itself, and in doing so he can atone for the things he's done. At the same time, he'll be able to help us in our goals. He's the best choice for what needs to be done, as much as I'd rather not having to put up with his attitude as he works with us. That will end up being more than enough to persuade him." Arca said, his voice becoming slightly strained.

"Oh yeah? That's what you think will persuade him? Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you but it's not going to work. Jack won't help you if you make it look like he's going to be working under you! " Reaper replied. "The Jack I knew-"

"The Harper you knew is dead!" Arca snapped, anger seeping into his voice. It was at this point that Reaper realized that he may have pushed slightly too far. "That man died the moment he witnessed the creations of those monsters! I saw it before everything truly began, and I've seen what he became through my observations of him through C's World. The man you knew has become someone completely different now, so don't patronize me when it's you who doesn't have any idea what he's become!"

Silence fell between the two as Reaper processed what just occurred. It was rare for Arca to get this angry. In fact, the times he'd seen Arca angry could be counted on one hand. Before Reaper could say anything, Arca began to move towards the door. When he reached it, Arca stopped and said, "I understand your frustrations in this matter. I really do. If I were in your position, I would be most likely doing the same thing if it was someone I had been close to. But you must understand, we can't let anything jeopardize the plan or the future. No matter what our personal feelings say otherwise."

Reaper didn't respond as he brought his anger under control. It would do nothing for him if he let it run wild. Arca continued at the lack of a response, "I don't like having to say this to you, but I'm ordering you to remain out of Harper's presence unless I say so. You are also not to contact him unless it is a life or death situation for him that he can't get out of in any other manner. Is that understood?"

Reaper slowly nodded, his voice cold as he responded, "Understood, sir."

"Good." Arca replied. "Get back to your team and continue work on the decryption. I want that data as soon as possible. I'll head over to Dr. Quincy's office, get him to wake Harper up."

Once the door shut behind Arca, Reaper slammed his fists against the table in front of him. He couldn't help but continue to glare at the door, as if he were still glaring at Arca. While he understood what Arca had said, it didn't mean he wanted to accept it. The idea that the man he once knew might no longer exist hurt him, and that he wasn't being allowed to talk to him hurt even more. If it wasn't for knowing how Arca had valid points, he wouldn't even have bothered to listen to him.

With a grunt of frustration Reaper sat down on one of the chairs and kicked his feet up on the desk. If he wasn't allowed to speak with Jack, then he could at least watch and see wether or not his predictions about Jack were true. Because for all Arca said about him changing, there were a few things that never change for a person. Besides, contrary to what Arca may believe in regards to overseeing a team, he didn't have to stay with them at every moment. They could handle themselves. In fact, it'd probably be better for them if he wasn't hanging over their shoulders constantly.

In regards to his current situation, he knew Jack's near obsession for control over different situations was one of the things no one could change. While he didn't't know exactly what was about to occur, he knew Arca was in for a rude awakening.

* * *

He couldn't help but bask in the peace the silence gave him.

Indeed, while Harper had always been surrounded by one form of noise or another, it was wonderful to experience the silence. Not just any silence either, but the silence within his own mind. All throughout the years, Harper had been plagued by his mind running on overdrive. During the day, he couldn't afford to let his mind be silent. Too much rested on his shoulders to be the case. At night, his mind was subjected to countless nightmares, both from his past and of the Reapers.

But the worst of the noise had to be that voice. The voice that constantly was in his mind, the one which spoke through him as he slowly lost control over it during the years following the First Contact War. The one he was constantly fighting with as it kept him from being able to use his own body. Indoctrination preventing him from doing what he truly wanted, only letting him back in partial control to experience the worst of the things he experienced. Always trapped in the corner of his mind, he had to listen to that demented signal as the Reapers used his body like a puppet.

But now he could rest from the noise. It was no longer there. He hadn't felt it when he was waking up initially, but once he had been sedated he realized he had some control again. Not much, but it certainly was better than he had had over the last few years. He was concerned, however.

He knew from experience that you couldn't just fight off Indoctrination. No matter how far you were from it's source, once Indoctrination got enough of a foothold in your mind the signal would be able to modify the brain slightly to help propagate the signal. As such, it would be constantly growing stronger until its hold was absolute. So for him to suddenly be regaining control? It meant that there was something else happening. Since he knew nobody had managed to create a counter to Indoctrination, it raised a lot of questions in his mind. Whatever had happened, it was an unknown. He absolutely hated unknowns, especially when he was in the unknown's debt.

He didn't know how long he'd been in this sedated state, but over time the Reaper presence from Indoctrination slowly but surely disappeared. Eventually, he stopped hearing that cursed signal. After a few rounds of mental tests, he was back in complete control. Now he could simply let himself rest inside of his mind, going through a myriad of different thoughts. With the signal gone, he allowed himself to truly relax as his barriers dropped and the mental exhaustion that accompanied it fell away.

One may ask how he was doing this while he was supposed to be unconscious, kept within a dreamless sleep. How he could still have what seemed like conscious thought while he was unconscious. The answer was complicated. His mind, ever since he had been young, had been able to create a place where his consciousness could retreat to at any time, a place, he later found out, even the Reapers had a hard time affecting outside of the sound of the signal which penetrated every fibre of his being. Sometimes he even wondered if they knew he could do this, as they never gave any indication that they did. He had learned he had been able to retreat into this mental landscape any time he wanted which served as a good way of organizing his thoughts in mere moments. The good thing about it for him was that it was able to help him maximize the efficiency of his mind. With every thought, memory and scrap of knowledge he had stored away in his own mental rooms and shelves, he could retreat into one of the many environments he had created within it and simply rest in both conscious moments and during the unconscious moments.

He was glad for that ability as it had most likely saved his mind and his sanity, allowing himself to remain in his mind after the Reapers had taken control of him. But at the same time it was also a curse, as he could see everything that was happening while he was awake. All of the atrocities he did, all of the people – his own people! – he killed, allowing the Reapers to gain more and more time to complete their plans. While he could keep his mind intact, his thoughts… no, the Reapers thoughts given to him were constantly being forced upon him. Even through the things he's done, none compared to the horrors of those abominations. But now, he had no need to worry.

The peace, however, wasn't meant to last. Harper could feel it, a tug on his mind as his body subconsciously tried to bring him out of his mental landscape and back to the forefront of his mind. While he didn't know what was going on, he knew that that tug was the feeling of waking up and in control of his body, a feeling that he vaguely remembered from years prior. There were only two conclusions he could make: either the substance the man gave him was wearing off, which would likely mean he was due for another injection in a few moments to keep his body asleep, or someone was trying to purposefully wake him up. When the tug didn't subside after a few moments, he assumed it was the latter. He let himself be pulled back to the front of his mind.

As he slowly eased himself back into a state of consciousness, he could feel the dull throbbing of his chest. The pain, while still there, was nowhere nearly as bad as he expected. The sounds of a device beeping filled his ears, as he could hear someone speak.

"-and should be waking up any moment now."

"Thank you, Dr. Quincy. I assume you'll want to stay in the room during this?"

The man, whom he could now identify as Dr. Quincy, replied, "Yes, if possible. I'd like to keep an eye on him in case anything about his status changes, and I doubt that you want Nurse Finlay in the room to hear what I assume to be a sensitive subject."

Harper opened his eyes slowly, wincing at the blaring light that entered his eyes. He began to blink in order to get his eyes to adjust, and he could see the form of a man overtop him as the figure slowly began to come into focus.

"Ah, there we go." The man above him, whom Harper believed to be the man he identified as Dr. Quincy said. "Now Mr. Harper. I need you to focus on my face." He kept his head in sight of Harper as he focused on it, knowing the procedure was a regular one. "Now, I want you to blink twice if you can make out the features on my face."

After a few moments to let himself focus, Harper complied and blinked. The man continued, "Good, your mind is focused enough to understand instructions. Now," the man reached for a glass on the table and brought it to Harper's mouth, "I want you to slowly take a drink from this. I doubt that your throat is hydrated enough to speak."

Harper took a few sips from the drink, wincing slightly at the taste of water on tongue and the stinging sensation that followed it. After a few moments, the doctor pulled the drink away. He continued, "Are you able to move your head?"

Harper nodded, a slight discomfort being felt as his muscles protested from the lack of movement during his time unconscious. The doctor nodded as he said, "Good. What about your arms?"

Harper tried to move his arms, managing to move them up to the halfway point before he hissed in pain, a sudden flare of pain coming from his chest. The doctor simply nodded as he said, "So, you can't move it past the chest. Anticipated as much. Try not to move them any higher for now, alright?"

Harper nodded. The doctor asked, "Now that your throat has been given some time to rest up, are you able to talk?"

"Yes." Harper replied, his voice shaky and hoarse. The doctor brought the glass of water back to him which he readily accepted. After he had drank some more, he replied, "Thank you." This time, his voice came out much better, although it was still a bit shaky and rough due to the amount of time he went without speaking or hydration.

The doctor nodded, and replied, "It's no problem. Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions. I want you to answer them to the best of your ability. I need to assess how much you remember before you fell unconscious."

At Harper's nod, the doctor began, looking at the screen next him which obviously contained the questions on it. "Name?"

Harper hesitated for a moment, not sure if he should give his name or not. But after a moment, he remembered that the doctor in front of him had already stated his last name, so he obviously knew who he was. As such, he responded, "Jack Harper."

The doctor continued, "Date of Birth?"

"July 12th, 2135." He replied.

"What's the last thing you remember?" the doctor asked.

"I remember being shot." Harper said, not willing to say more than what was necessary. "I was forced to stick against a wall in order to stop the bleeding-" not saying it was the Reapers who forced it, "-and then I felt a large amount of pain before I blacked out."

The doctor nodded, turning toward the other man in the room. "It seems as if he's fine at the moment. I'll do a full check later, as I know you want to speak with him."

Harper turned his gaze to the hooded man in the room and instantly raised his guard. There was something about this man he was wary of, although he didn't know what it was. At the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd seen this man before.

The man stepped forwards, remaining in front of his bed. From what he could see, the man was tense, most likely just as wary of Harper as he was of the man. After a few moments, the man spoke, "How do you feel?"

The tone of the voice was firm. Harper could tell that the man was obviously some form of soldier. His tone and the way he held himself practically screamed it. Not only that, but his past had had him in the presence of many similar men. All of them had defining characteristics that singled them out if you knew what to look for. Knowing that this man wasn't hiding it meant that he was most likely here on some form of business. He responded in the way he always did. "Acceptable. Certainly better than I believe I should."

The man's hood shifted as he responded, "Given that you were healing from heavy wounds, it's good to know that you feel better than expected. I believe introductions are in order. I am Arca, and the man sitting next to you is Doctor Quincy."

Harper simply nodded, his gaze fixed solely on the man who identified himself as Arca. For a second, he wondered why the name sounded so familiar, but then he pushed the thought aside. He needed to focus on what was going on. He'd already known the doctor's name due to the part of the conversation he overheard and had already filed all of the observations that he needed to make into the back of his mind. Right now, his attention was solely on Arca.

Arca continued. "I believe that it's best for me to get straight down to business. Now before I say anything, I want you to know that everything I say next is the truth, as impossible as it may seem."

At that point, Arca began to slowly pace in front of the bed, his hood never turning away from Harper. When no response came from Harper, Arca continued, "Let me start out with a simple fact: you are no longer in the place you once knew."

Harper's eyebrow raised slightly as he responded, "I could tell that. Given that this doesn't look like any medical facility I've ever seen, that fact is quite obvious."

"Good. It shows that your reasoning and observational abilities are still intact." Dr. Quincy replied, jotting down notes on his computer. Arca's hood shifted towards Dr. Quincy before returning back to Harper.

"While that may be true, it's not for the reasons you would most likely believe." Arca said. At the lack of response from Harper, Arca continued, "I'll be blunt: you're no longer in your own time."

Harper's mind stopped momentarily at that remark. He wasn't in his own time? Impossible. Unless this man was talking about being in the future, Harper was ready to label this man as some form of him such illogical explanations that would force his mind to continue in overdrive would be suitable for him, and if this was a form of Alliance facility, then it would make sense that Shepard would have some information from when working with Cerberus. Would have been easy to transfer the information to the Alliance so they could form interrogation tactics if they ever managed to catch him. Or maybe the Reapers had managed to have a more lasting effect than he realized, leaving his mind to succumb to insanity with this being the result. Or maybe this was some form of observation, with the Reapers placing himself in a situation where they could observe him, seeing what his reactions to things would be. Given that he didn't truly understand them, any of these could be possible, although the Alliance interrogation would be the most likely result.

Before Harper could formulate a response, Arca continued, "The current year is 2009 a.t.b. By your calendar, however, it would be the year 1959 CE."

Harper took a moment to process this. 1959? That wasn't possible. If this wasn't something made by the Reapers and this man was telling what he thought was the truth, then it didn't make sense. He knew for a fact that no one took time travel seriously. It was an impossible concept, as it would, in theory, cause reactions within the natural universe that would result in a theoretical end of the universe scenario. It's the reason why nobody took it seriously. He was starting to wonder if he was wrong in thinking that the Reapers had anything to do with this, as even they wouldn't create something as ludicrous as this. The Alliance would be even less likely to do so, if this was actually an interrogation. If it was them, they would have made something that caused him to believe that he was back to normal, not the other way around. Maybe even in his own past, but nothing like this! The only thing he could think was possible was that he had been left insane, and that the Reapers had affected his mind more than he thought. Either that, or this man was actually telling the truth. Perhaps it was best to play along before arriving to any conclusions.

Before Arca could speak again, he asked, "A.t.b?"

Arca stopped pacing for a moment, as he looked at Harper. He knew Arca was most likely surprised, at least slightly. He would be too, as most people would have probably made some form of remark about how being in a different time, in the past no less, was impossible. A response like his own was probably the last thing he expected.

After a few moments, Arca responded, "A.t.b stands for ascension of the throne of Britannia."

Harper couldn't help the small frown that formed on his face. Britannia? That was odd. Britannia was an old title used by the British during the Medieval and Renaissance period to refer to themselves and the nature of the British as a whole. But that was as far as it went. There wasn't any form of time standards that was known as a.t.b. Not only that, but the term referred to it as ascension of the throne of Britannia. The term would likely mean that the measurement came from when someone came to the throne of this Britannia, which could be in reference to Britain. But the nation of Britain wasn't referred to as Britannia during this time period. So unless his memory on history was completely wrong, there wasn't anything referred to as Britannia that was truly prominent in this time period.

Before Harper could speak again, Arca continued, "Now, you're probably wondering why you've woken up here, in an unfamiliar place. One that looks nothing like any place you've been before. The fact is, we need your help. We need the help of The Illusive Man in order to help the world grow in preparation. Now, I know that you've had a past of wrongdoings in the name of humanity. But I believe that we need a person with your skills, experience and mindset in order to help the world. I can't do as much as I'd like for reasons I can't divulge at this moment. But you would be able to help the world and prepare it for what's to come. Now, you'll be-"

"No." Harper interrupted.

Arca stopped pacing and his body turned to face Harper, his form leaning over the end of the bed frame. A quick glance by Harper to the side and he could see that Dr. Quincy was staring at him with eyes wide. Good. It told him more about Arca. This appeared to be the first time the doctor had seen someone say anything against Arca. It means that he is a man who was used to getting what he wanted, had enough authority to cause them to simply say nothing and follow his instructions, and possibly more. It would take a bit to narrow everything down, but he was determined to figure out why this man made him feel so suspicious.

Arca spoke up after a few moments. "What do you mean, no?" he asked, his words coming out slowly and with a slight amount of force.

He knew there was something else going on. He couldn't trust Arca, but he knew that he couldn't rest until he found out what had happened. Even if there wasn't anything as big as the Reapers to be a threat, he needed to find out what helped him to be free from Indoctrination. If there was something powerful enough to fight off Indoctrination, it could pose a threat. Especially if it had taken interest in him or humanity, even if this wasn't his own. If something that powerful decided to interfere more…

Harper gave no facial reaction, letting his mind shift back to what had become second nature for him. "Allow me to elaborate." Harper replied, the same tone he had always used as The Illusive Man to enforce his words and give his voice the sound of a man in complete control. "By all rights I should be dead, my corpse propped up against a wall as I sit in a pool of my own blood. In what seems to me like mere moments, I wake up to find myself in a medical facility, clearly not even similar to any facility I have ever seen before with a man telling me that I am currently in the past and tells me the year using a measurement of time that makes some implications which can't be ignored."

Harper leaned slightly forwards as he internalized the protests of his body to the movement. His eyes narrowed as he continued, "I don't know what you thought when you wanted to talk to me, but if you know anything about who I am, you should know how I don't like information being held from me. I don't know if you realize this, but from the moment you started talking to me, I've formulated a sizeable amount of different situations where this could be something within my mind or an attempt to get knowledge on the projects I ordered to be conducted. Those are just two situations out of many, most of them having you using me for your own gain."

He kept watching Arca, looking for any signs that he could use to further build up the mental profile he had on him. There was none, however, as Arca kept his body language under complete control. So, Harper continued onwards. "I want to make one fact clear: I don't trust you. Here you are, telling me about what you want from me while also mentioning some things that should be impossible. You tell these facts like a military man giving orders to his subordinates, expecting them to have already accepted what is to occur. Well, let me tell you: this is not that type of situation. I will not help you unless I am given the ability to act independently. I refuse to be controlled by someone whose intentions I don't truly know and will most likely never know, given my observations. Regardless of what purpose you have for me, beneficial to myself or not."

Harper knew this was probably the last thing Arca wanted to hear, but he wouldn't allow himself to be controlled. The last time he had decided to do something in response to a looming threat, the very threat he tried to fight ended up controlling him against his will. Now he was thrust into another situation where, by all appearances, he would have to be under the control of someone who would, if his observations were correct, most likely try to keep secrets from him? He wouldn't let himself be forced into a situation like that. Until he could confirm his situation to actually be as Arca says, he didn't want anything to do with forces that could falsify anything to try and convince him. Even if he did manage to confirm it, he would never be able to accept being controlled by someone again. Unless he was given that independence, he wouldn't budge on the subject.

Harper could hear Arca sigh slightly, obviously frustrated with what was happening. Arca spoke up and said, "I know this is hard for you to accept, but you will needed to work with us, and I need to supervise you. Right now, you have a chance to atone for your mistakes and help us. Not only could you clear your conscious of what you've done, but you would also be preventing an entire civilization from wiping itself out."

Harper frowned at what Arca had said. "I understand what you're saying. But it won't change my answer. There have been people who have kept secrets from me before, Arca. Those who did either ended up doing more harm than good, both to me and others, or have wound up dead. I don't plan on opening myself up to that any time soon." he replied, letting the silent threat hang. While he knew that he wouldn't likely be able to carry through with the threat, Arca had already shown he had underestimated him. It was possible that he didn't know about some of the things he had learned in regards to his own defense.

As Arca remained silent, thoughts began to race through Harper's mind as he realized something. The thing which helped him get rid of the Indoctrination could be either a piece of technology or some form of entity, which could also have managed to bring him here in the first place. If it had that kind of power, it could prove disastrous if it fell into the wrong hands.

Since this "Arca" said that he needed his help and his skills while addressing how he knew Harper would be confused, it meant he knew something about how he got here. Possibly had even known about Harper's life and the events leading up to the moment he was supposed to die. If that was the case, it meant Arca had some form of influence over whatever brought him here, wether it be a device or entity. If true, it meant he had to be careful. He needed to remain independent so that he could do what he needed to, but keep from alienating Arca and possibly causing him to do anything further that could be harmful to him or his new opportunity.

After a few minutes, Arca turned to leave. Before he left, he spoke once more to Harper, "I'll be back soon. Think about your position while I'm gone." He continued to speak in a neutral tone, but Harper could tell that it was forced. He also could tell that Arca knew what his reaction was going to be on the subject. It also raised his concerns even further. The fact that he could tell what Arca was thinking, even though he couldn't find any tells a few moments ago, showed that Arca wanted him to see it. Arca knew where he couldn't push further, and could tell that he wasn't going to budge. Either he was going out of the room to rethink his strategy of approaching him, or he was going to rethink about the decision to bring him to this place.

With that, he left the room as he went to who knows where. Dr. Quincy stood up to go after him and said, "I apologize for Arca's behaviour towards you. He shouldn't act that way to a patient. One of the Nurses here, a Miss Finlay, will be looking after you during you're time here. I do apologize, but I must go and tend to business since I seem to not be needed. Good day, Mr. Harper."

As Dr. Quincy left the room, Harper had to hold back a snort. Business indeed. Arca had most likely had a previous order given to the doctor, most likely how he wasn't to be in the same room as him while being alone. It would make sense, as the doctor most likely knew at least some of who Arca was and what he was doing, if only a small portion of it. Arca wouldn't want anything about himself to be known.

Harper looked up as the door opened again. A lithe looking woman entered, most likely the nurse the doctor had mentioned. She walked up to the side of the bed where the machines monitoring his vitals were and said, "Hello sir. I'm the nurse Dr. Quincy assigned to you. I'll be helping you until you're ready to be discharged."

Harper nodded at the woman as she went about her job, checking monitors for details about his current state. He kept quiet as he let the nurse do what she was required to do as he reflected on what had been said, trying to ensure that no detail about this "Arca" was missed. He wanted, no, needed to figure out why he felt so suspicious of him. Maybe it was just paranoia. But he hadn't gotten to where he had been without some degree of it.

There was just something about Arca that made him suspicious in his eyes. While he had noticed quite a few things that told him about some of the man's characteristics, it didn't help him understand why the man seemed… off, for lack of a better term. There was something that set off alarms in him, but he couldn't figure out what it was. The only thing he could think of was the lack of normal body language, surpassing that of a normal military or ex-military man should possess. Harper had a lot of experience about reading other people, and he had enough of it to tell when someone was purposefully suppressing their body language. This "Arca" was good at that, he had to admit. He only let Harper see what he had wanted him to see. Extremely professional as well, as it would require expert training to be able to do so with such ease. That would most likely make him either someone high in political circles, or in a high place in a military.

But that was the problem. When he led Cerberus, he had constantly been on the lookout when speaking with anyone. When talking to someone who wasn't within the organization, he had always kept an eye on those people who knew the game being played. The goal of hunting down even the slightest of indicators during any and all conversations. That was the essence of the game. But in learning that over the years, it also showed him another side of it: those you can't afford to get too close to. When a person shows their skill at hiding their body language and controlling every one of their tells, it was best to keep them at arms length. These people were the cunning, the manipulative and the ones who'd stab you in the back the moment you were of no use anymore. While he knew not all were like that, the instinct to not trust people who operated as such had become ingrained into his mind due to how dangerous it would be for the goals of Cerberus to become too familiar with someone. It was the same game he had played for years, as he forced the people that he interacted with to remain quiet on their connections with him. If they didn't or he didn't trust them, he arranged "accidents" to ensure their silence.

That was what was concerning about this man. This "Arca" held himself and spoke to him in a way which instantly reminded him of this form of behaviour. Whoever he was, he was a dangerous person to be associated with, that much was certain. The knowledge Arca has on him was also concerning, as it could prove dangerous no matter what the situation. That was why he wouldn't trust him, why he wouldn't work under him. There were just too many variables.

But that might not be completely everything. While he'd like to deny it, those weren't the only reasons why he wouldn't trust him. As Arca had been speaking, a sense of familiarity kept pulling at Harper's mind, begging him to remember. There was something about this man which pulled at his senses, making him believe he knew the man. At the same time, his mind screamed danger to him. But this was his problem and the source of his confusion. The only individuals who knew who he truly was before he became The Illusive Man were dead. In fact, there were only two men who had remained alive after he assumed the mantle of The Illusive Man. The first was dead by Commander Shepard's hand at the Citadel, that being Saren Arterius. The second was Henry Lawson, who he knew had died at some point shortly before Shepard had come to activate the Crucible. So, how could this man have such familiarity to him and know so much if everyone who could have known was dead?

Harper was jostled out of his thoughts as the nurse shook him slightly, concern seeping into her voice as she asked, "Sir?"

He shook his head slightly as he refocused onto the nurse. "Yes?" he asked.

"Are you alright sir? You didn't respond to me for the last couple of minutes." she replied.

"My apologies. I was simply lost in thought, miss…?" he replied, trying to remember the name of the nurse who was attending him.

"Finlay. Eliza Finlay." she responded.

Harper nodded as he silently berated himself. Sloppy. He should have remembered her name without issues. "Miss Finlay. Now, what was it you were trying to ask me?"

"I was trying to ask you if there was anything you wanted me to get for you." she replied.

After considering for a few moments, he responded, "Yes. If it's not a problem, I could use something to eat, as long as I'm cleared for it."

The nurse nodded. "I'll see what I can do for you. I'll be back momentarily."

At that, the nurse left, leaving Harper to indulge himself in his thoughts once more. After a small amount of thinking, he decided that he needed to know more about where he was, both for his own benefit and to know if Arca was telling the truth. While he was leaning towards Arca telling the truth, he needed to be certain. He resolved to talk to the nurse and see what she knew about him. While he didn't expect much, he could probably get some information out of her. If she turned out to not know much about himself, then he could take what she said with some confidence. If she knew much about him, then he knew she couldn't be completely trusted, as it would mean she was in on whatever Arca had planned and could make what she says seem to be true. With that in mind, he prepared himself for the conversation once she returned. He began the process of finding the best way to go about it, as he wouldn't want to make her close up in any way, at least not before he got the information he wanted.

While he prepared himself, however, a very different conversation was underway inside a different room. One that would change the path of Arca's plan.

* * *

After Arca had exited the room, he had went to the surveillance room as he radiated anger. Harper having the nerve to refuse the offer irritated him, certainly, but that he wanted to act on his own? Ridiculous.

As he entered the room and turned to face the monitors, he could see that Reaper had been watching the exchange. While he was a bit annoyed that Reaper hadn't gone to his team, he knew that Reaper would have at least a decent reason why. He had his chair turned to where he knew that Arca would walk in from, with a smug smile on his face. Before Arca could say anything, Reaper said, "I told you so."

Arca just growled slightly at his response, warning him to not continue. Reaper wan't going to heed the warning, however, as he said, "I told you that Jack wouldn't want to work with you if you made him work under you. But of course, you didn't listen to me at all."

"He knows how he's got a chance to atone for the things he's done. He knows how he couldn't do it alone, as he can easily remember the harm working alone caused him. He knows how working under us could help the goals of both sides. Why does he refuse?" Arca asked out loud, ignoring what Reaper said.

"Do you want to know why?" Reaper asked. When Arca didn't respond, Reaper continued, "It's because he isn't like you. You keep thinking about all of this in your own mindset, thinking that the smallest amount of knowledge about something or that your logic will be enough for people to fall in and obey your orders. Well guess what? It ain't like that with him. You might be used to the idea of a group of soldiers following your orders, but Jack isn't like that. He's never been like that."

Reaper gestured to the monitor that showed the camera feed from Harper's room, currently displaying Harper talking to the nurse assigned to him as he ate. "He ain't a true soldier. He ain't anyone's subordinate. He's a man who temporarily became a mercenary on Shanxi who never liked to be controlled. That's the one thing I know never changed. I don't know what you ended up seeing while observing him in C's World, but I can assure you of one thing. Trying to get him to work under you is never going to work. It's the reason why he was barely willing to take orders from General Williams back on Shanxi. He can't, and doesn't plan to, deal with anyone above him who could interfere with what he believes to be the best option. At best he'll hold you at arms length. At worst, he'll outright act against you, destroying any plans you've had in the process. If you can't get it through your skull, then you can just give up on trying to get him to help you right now."

Silence permeated the surveillance room. Reaper had said his piece and had meant all of it. He knew Jack wouldn't be willing to go work underneath him, it was a fact. If Arca really wanted Jack to work under him, he'd have to be willing to let him operate on his own. There was no way he'd accept anything else.

When Arca didn't respond, Reaper decided to continue speaking. "I know you don't like this at all. But you signed up for this when you decided to bring Jack here. What I'm surprised at is how, for all your supposed knowledge on what he's like now, you didn't notice any of this while observing him."

"I expected him follow if he was given a chance to atone. He'd then be slowly shown what our goals were, and would fall in line." Arca replied.

Reaper scoffed at Arca's remark, shaking his head while doing so. "Really? That again? Just because he knows this is his chance to live a new life doesn't mean he's going to fall in like a good little soldier like you'd want him to. It's funny, really. You and him have such differing personalities that it's almost comedic to watch."

At Arca's questioning glance Reaper continued, "You and him can be polar opposites in some ways. You expect those under you to follow orders. You appreciate the system of command and hold a respect for it and expect those under you to ultimately follow orders, even if they may disagree with them. You also have always expected of yourself, given your previous position, to follow the orders of your superiors without question. Your very being can be considered an embodiment of the system of command."

Reaper glanced back at the monitor as he spoke. "Jack's the complete opposite. He's never liked being ordered what to do. For him, it means he loses control of things and is forced to put trust in what, to him, is an unknown variable. Even if said person is someone who he has in-depth knowledge of, he still wouldn't accept orders from them because he can never be certain if there's a pivotal unknown which could change everything. It's the reason why he was barely willing to follow General Williams orders in the defense of Shanxi, especially since the General's orders ended up allowing the very strike which lead him down the path he now is determined to see through."

Reaper's stare returned to Arca, looking into the dark of his hood. "He will not place his trust in you and work under you. That is a guarantee. He simply can't because it leaves too much authority in a person who he would consider an unknown variable. Heck, he wouldn't even place his trust in someone he personally knows. Now that I look back at our prior conversation, I see what you meant. I really wouldn't have been a help." At this, Reaper sighed as he cast his head down. "Even if I went to talk to him, he still wouldn't have been willing to work under you or me. He still would demand that he be allowed to operate independently. Honestly, I'm surprised that he's taken this so well, completely skipping by what most people would expect him to say in this situation and going straight to what he wants in order to operate."

"Be that as it may-" Arca began before he was cut off once more by the slam of Reaper's fist against the table.

"Arca, will you listen to me for one moment!" Reaper yelled, his frustration finally taking over. While he could respect Arca's dedication to what he perceived to be the best option, it could become extremely infuriating when he wouldn't accept that what he thought would be best wouldn't be able to happen. "I know what you want and I understand why, but it won't do anything to help in this case! As it is, we're lucky Jack isn't trying to pick apart every little bit of information you give him in order to gain more information. He seems to be doing it now with that nurse who was assigned to him, but that's beside the point. I can tell that he was accepting that what you were saying had some possible truth, so it's good that he's already pushing it aside to focus on new possibilities to work."

At this point, Reaper was surprised that Arca had remained silent during his whole explanation. He had been expecting Arca to get angry at him, shutting down his arguments and telling him how he shouldn't interfere. Him remaining silent was both worrying and a good sign at the same time. Worrying, because he had never seen Arca like this. He was always a no nonsense "general commanding his army" type of person. To see him silent at a person who blatantly defied that? Not a good thing, to say the least. But it was also a good sign, as it meant it was possible that what Reaper was saying might actually be hitting home.

So, the absence of a response from Arca, Reaper decided to drive home his point. "The fact is, we're talking about a man who has always had a way of thinking which is radically different than the norm. That he can put off his emotions and personal thoughts at a whim and immediately focus on the big picture is something which takes a long time to do, sometimes never. The fact that I know he's done this ever since he was young? He's very different from the norm, and he is even more different to you than any of us. I know him being independent is the last thing that you want, but it's most likely our only option."

At that, Reaper let the silence take over. He knew that he was correct. Nothing would be able to persuade Jack to accept anything other than independence. Arca needed to see it, however. If he didn't, then he knew Jack wouldn't accept anything Arca tried to do. He could have pointed out Arca's hypocrisy in the situation, but it would most likely cause Arca to close up.

After a few moments, Reaper decided to speak up one last time. "You know, it could be better off if he remains independent from us." Maybe, just maybe, he could convince him of the long term benefit.

"How so?" Arca asked. While his voice still sounded hard, Reaper could detect a small hint of curiosity in his voice.

"Well, think of it this way. We know that the Directorate is hunting us down. We can't act much in the Britannian society because of it, correct?" At Arca's nod, Reaper continued, "Well, wouldn't it be better for Harper to have the least amount of ties to us as possible? If he was working under us, there's a risk that the Directorate might find out about his connection to us and end up using him to get to us. Then everything we've done was for nothing. But if he stays independent, there would be ways to make it seem as if our contact with Jack is so minimal that they wouldn't do much more than monitor him. At that point, Jack would know to find a way to minimize suspicion. It could be what ends up preventing the Directorate for ending us permanently."

Arca seemed to think about it for a moment, and Reaper hoped that what he said stuck with him. From what he could see, his logic was sound. Why have him work directly under them if it could compromise everything? Minimal contact would allow Jack to get his independence from them while also allowing him to integrate into Britannian society. The Directorate wouldn't waste resources on him unless they truly thought that he was connected to them. He just hoped that Arca would bite. Sometimes, he was to rigid for his own good. Once he got a plan in his head and ironed out, he would stick with it. As such, it could be very difficult to convince him of any other possibilities.

So it was to Reaper's great relief when Arca finally spoke, "You raise good points Reaper. I think you're right on this. I'll go talk to him and let him know that he'll be able to operate independently from us. But," Arca said, as he stood, leaning forward towards Reaper. The man in question could practically feel the cold anger directed at him. Arca continued to speak, "don't think that you can get away with talking against me. I let you speak because you were raising a good point and I was, I admit, too focused on the way I've always operated. But don't get it into your mind that I plan on letting you do it frequently."

Reaper stood straight under Arca's gaze, a smirk forming on his face. "I don't plan on it Arca. All I plan to do is knock around your head a bit when you're to stubborn for your own good. Don't need to talk much when a solid hit will have more effect."

Arca remained where he was for a few moments before he turned to walk for the door. As he left, Reaper could hear him say, "Make sure you and Dr. Quincy have all of the information Harper needs. When he begins to work he'll need it as soon as he can."

"Yes sir!" Reaper replied as the door closed. Turning around to the computer, he saw the computer had just finished its copying process. He'd already anticipated Arca's request regardless of how the conversation went. After all, what kind of man would he be if he couldn't predict what he was about to be told to do?

As the computer completed it's process, Reaper turned to view the security monitor showing Harper in bed. Things were going to get interesting soon, he could tell.

* * *

The nurse had left a little while ago, saying she had some other duties she had to preform. He was fine with that, as it gave him some time to process what he'd been told.

When the nurse had come back with food, he'd launched into conversation about what was going on. She didn't question why he asked so many questions. Either she had dealt with people who had issues remembering information often, or that doctor had told her something as an excuse for his lack of knowledge. What was interesting, however, was her responses after he had figured out that neither Dr. Quincy nor Arca had told her anything.

The small pieces of information Arca gave him were true. He found it out first when he asked the nurse. She went into a general summary of the nation they were in, apparently called Britannia. It was quite enlightening to find out about some of the things that went on during its history. Particularly how it covers a third of the world, an impressive feat for a singular nation. The fact that Britannia had clawed itself back from the brink of collapse after Napoleon succeeded in his invasion – which was still hard to wrap his mind around - was quite impressive. After a short period of the nurse informing him about the world he was in, she excused herself from the room as she had other duties she had to tend to. Before she left, however, she told him that Dr. Quincy was planning on giving him more information in the coming days.

That was good. No matter what happened, at least he'd get information on the current world he was in. Before he could think much further on that line of thought, the door opened again as Arca stepped in. While he didn't say anything, Harper could tell that Arca was still angry. Whatever he did after he left the room obviously didn't do much to help his mood.

Harper remained silent, wisely deciding to let Arca speak first. After a few moments, Arca spoke the words that Harper had wanted to hear, "I've done some discussing with one of my… _allies_ , and he's managed to persuade me. You'll be allowed to operate independently from us, with some conditions of course."

For the first time since he woke up in this world, a smirk came upon Harper's face. He had what he wanted. Now he'd be able to do what is needed, all of it in his way. The right way. The _only_ true way to save the world. At that moment, Harper spoke the words that would change everything.

"Well then. What do I need to know?"

* * *

 **Well, Harper just opened a massive can of worms. So, he's up and about ready to start taking on the world. As soon as he gets cleared out of the hospital, that is.**

 **So as you can see, things are about to start ramping up from here on out. Harper is going to be introduced to a brand new world, Arca's plans have already been thrown into disarray before he could even get started, and Reaper shows more knowledge than even Arca has. Going to be… interesting, if my outline pans out the way I've been going about it. What direction is that? Well, I hope you'll stick around to find out!**

 **As I said above, I'd love it if people left behind some reviews. Other than that, I don't have much else to say. So, I hope you all enjoyed another chapter of The Illusive Knight, and I'll see you all in the next chapter.**

 **Logging off,**

 **Gammatron942**


	4. Chapter 3: Pendragon and Plans

**Hey everyone, and welcome back to another chapter of The Illusive Knight!**

 **Its taken me a while to actually finish up this chapter and get it to a point I was happy with, but I'm glad I kept pushing my mind. Chapter actually went a bit differently than I envisioned, but I actually think it turned out for the better.**

 **38 follows and 29 favourites with only three chapters! Thank you guys so much! I never thought I'd actually be able to write something which people would read and enjoy so much. So thank you all!**

 **Now, I wanted to do this last chapter but I accidentally forgot to. Reviews! If you don't want to read this, just skip down past the reviews to where I start addressing everyone again.**

 **davycrockett100: Thanks! I hope you're enjoying the story!**

 **Guest whom (I assume) forgot to put some identifier down so I could properly address them: I'm not too sure about that. I've read a few where people come into the Code Geass Universe and they're pretty good. But I can understand if you haven't found any you like.**

 **Emberframe: Thanks! I'm glad you like it so far!**

 **BrotherCaptainShepard: Well, I hope this goes in a way which you'll enjoy!**

 **gabe. .1997: Not time travel. I can tell you that much. Trust me, unless you happen to be a Time Lord with a habit of being hilarious while getting into trouble across space and time, time travel just becomes too complicated to worry about and keep track of in my books. What's really happening, you may ask? Well, you'll have to find out.**

 **Lord Halcyon: I'm glad you're liking the story! And no, it's not a bad thing to wish for that. You may get something like that, or you may not. Really depends on how the story decides to let me write it. Who knows?**

 **Mr. Roboto: Don't worry, I'm not planning to let the knowledge in Harper's mind go to waste. You'll see something of interest, no issues about that. While I can't say exactly how things'll go, you've got some good ideas about it. Now, I get to figure out exactly** _ **how**_ **. I'm glad you're liking the story as well! Also, I haven't gotten the chance to look a bit into the reactor you're talking about, but thanks for pointing it out. I'll make sure that I take a look when I get the chance.**

 **For everybody else, thanks for following this story and I hope I can keep up the quality and interest! Please leave reviews if there's something you want to mention or talk about. I'd love to interact with all of you wherever I can! Join the review party!**

 **Now it's time for the mandatory part of this: disclaimer! Get over here!**

 **I do NOT own either Mass Effect or Code Geass. They belong to Bioware and Sunrise Entertainment, in that order. The only thing I technically own are any OC's that I personally create and appear in the story. Any similarities to characters outside of Mass Effect and Code Geass that I do not explicitly mention that I am basing them off of in either the beginning or ending Author's Note are not intentional. Same goes for any similarities to other OC's by other authors.**

 **Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you all at the bottom!**

* * *

"Anyone there?" – Normal speaking

" **What is that?** " – Character thoughts

" **Intruder Alert!** " – Speaker/Computer text

" _Command, this is Alpha-1."_ – Radio/Communications

" _ **Die!**_ _"_ – Geass command

* * *

" _As stated prior, we don't know much about the past of Mr. Harper between 2007 a.t.b and 2009 a.t.b, even less prior to that. But we begin to gain more information during 2009 a.t.b. It was during this year where Mr. Harper began his rise in the noble courts and began his journey to becoming one of the most successful men in history._

 _After he had healed from whatever injury he was hospitalized for, Mr Harper was shown to be profiling people for possible employment. Records made available by Harper Industries shows that he began this process as soon as he was able to. The construction of Harper Industries' primary facility was nearly complete, so he needed to find people to work. Nothing too unnatural at first glance, other than the fact that Mr. Harper selected all of these individuals on his own with surprising efficiency, ensuring he could hand pick those who would be working directly for him._

 _But upon a deeper look, an interesting pattern began to arise. Mr. Harper didn't look for the regular people one would look for in a company. While he did keep extremely detailed files about those he employed, the interesting thing was how most of these people were ones who were well known for their loyalty to their employer. While it may not seems out of the ordinary at first glance, it shows how Mr. Harper worked: he didn't care about disabilities, he didn't care about the status of the individual. He didn't even care if the person committed any crimes which could give life imprisonment or capital punishment! The only thing he cared about was the loyalty of the person to him. Knowing this fact later helped to build up Mr. Harper's image, as he became one of the few people in Britannia who was willing to take in people who could be of use and make them strong, regardless of their background. While some people may say Mr. Harper was simply using these people for his own gains, you'd be hard pressed to find a person working for him who doesn't have good things to say."_

 _-Excerpt from "The Rise of Harper Industries," 2040 a.t.b._

* * *

 **The Illusive Knight**

 **Chapter 3: Pendragon and Plans**

As the rumble of the plane's engines filled the cabin he was in, Harper found himself with a newfound appreciation for the way the humanity of his past built their vehicles. There was something oddly satisfying about hearing the rumble of the engines going through your entire being as you travelled where you needed to go. While it did show the status of their mechanical work, as those rumbles were the result of less efficient engines, he could understand why early pilots of element zero vehicles felt so distrustful of them. They wouldn't have felt the rumble which, if missing at the time, would usually signify a problem.

As the plane flew on towards its destination, Harper turned his view back towards the computer he had been using. He was reading up on everything he needed to know about Britannia's political system for the upcoming event. After all, it was quite important to understand what should be said to gain the most favour and what he should avoid. He couldn't afford any mistakes right now, not at such a crucial junction.

He finished the last few notes he had, making sure he committed everything to memory. He had to admit, the political system of Britannia was an environment he could fit in easily with. The strong were the ones on top. The game played in the courts, with their backstabbing groups and hidden agendas, was all too similar to the things he did as The Illusive Man while running Cerberus. A role with habits that he had no plans to shake off any time soon.

As he finished committing to memory his notes, his mind drifted towards the events of the last month. He could afford it, as he wasn't supposed to arrive at his destination for a while longer. It had certainly been a productive month as he learned everything he could about the world he was in. After Arca had allowed him to operate independently, as long as he kept contact with him along with some added provisions, he had been given an information packet on the computer in his room. Arca told him to read up on it during the week, as Dr. Quincy wanted to conduct tests on Harper to assess his current health. He would also undergo some therapy, as he had been unconscious for long enough that he would need to get used to walking again. All of this while he had to be careful of accidentally putting too much stress on his body as it healed.

He accepted what Arca said, using any time he wasn't undergoing physical therapy to read up on the history of this new world. In reading the information, he couldn't have guessed how much the term "new world" fit this situation so perfectly.

There was a lot of differences from his world. While he known that Napoleon succeeded in his invasion and Washington failed his revolution due to his talks with Nurse Finlay, he hadn't realized the changes would so drastically change the way the world went. The fact that the European Union, or Europa United as they liked to call themselves, wasn't made as a way to create a united Europe that could maintain some level of peace between countries but was instead formed to fight, what he saw to be, a losing battle against Britannia? Along with the usual greed that accompanies humans, trying to gain as much power as possible as well as as much wealth as possible? Or the fact that most of Asia was under the rule of a government called the Chinese Federation, one that was nowhere similar to any of the governments that existed in that area in his time period? These were only a couple of the most obvious effects of the altered history, with many more differences making themselves apparent as he dug deeper. Needless to say, it took him a while to process everything. Harper was lucky he was able to compartmentalize almost everything when it came to information: otherwise, he was certain the sheer amount of differences would have most likely overloaded his mind.

During the time that he had been reading up on this information, Dr. Quincy continued his check ups in order to make sure he was healing properly. After the first week, he was able to walk around the restricted area of the hospital as Dr. Quincy cleared him from bed under the condition he didn't conduct any strenuous activities. He had agreed to it easily. After all, he doubted that he'd need to worry about much during this stage.

As the month went by, he spent his time getting used to the history of the world he was now in as well as some of the various advancements that had been made in this world. It was interesting to see, to say the least. In most areas of research, this world was far beyond his own when comparing it to the equal year in his own world, even including the fact that they had yet to send anyone into space as of yet. Some of these technologies were quite ahead of their time. The different types of military craft, widespread device usage, current medical procedures and more were closer to the 2060's in his own time if not even further than that. If Arca's time conversions were right, then some of this technology was developed, at minimum, 50 years before it was in his timeline. Quite the impressive feat.

While their research was very impressive considering how far it was, he couldn't help but begin to cringe as he read through some of the designs for some of these inventions. While some of the inventions were well designed, like the structure system designed for settlements to prevent earthquakes and other disasters, others were… not so thought out. He still shuddered at the memory of reading the information on the standard issue weapons the Britannian military gave to their men. The pistols he didn't have much of a problem with, as the only thing he could see that was wrong with it was how there was an unnecessary amount of recoil you had to compensate for. But that was a simple fix which he had already thought about. Overall, the weapon was a reliable and efficient weapon.

No, those weren't the problem for him. What he shuddered at was the standard assault rifle issued to soldiers. When he first read it, it took him a bit to actually process what he had read. He then read it 3 more times to be certain that his eyes weren't deceiving him. But apparently, they were not. Who designs a rifle in a way that not only lets it get jammed so easily, but also makes it extremely difficult if not outright impossible to make field repairs? It just shouldn't be possible to make something that poorly designed, yet somehow it exists. If he ever found out who made the push to make it the mainstay of their forces, he'd make sure they never would be able to contaminate any future generations with their stupidity.

It was during this time he'd found out about all of the assets Arca had gained for his use. It turned out that he'd already begun the establishment of a proper company, naming it Harper Industries. While he didn't care for the name much, he supposed it fit the role he was trying to fit into as it gave the mask of a slight bit of arrogance.

It was ironic that he was informed of this around the same time he found out about these designs. He resolved that he would make sure that the rifle would be the first thing he got rid of, or at least redesigned completely. After looking at the number of instances where gun malfunctions caused injury or death (claimed to be sabotage by enemy forces, mind you), he knew he couldn't let this stand. After all, it would lead to the very real possibility that he would not only have to use these types of weapons in the future, but it was also possible that he'd be letting people who could be of use get killed. Losing that potential wasn't something he could afford.

Along with the formation of the company, Arca had also acquired some land where he'd be able to build whatever he needed. The man had already had production nearly complete on the base facilities required to be used as a production facility along with a central, if temporary, headquarters. While it would be useful for the company portion of things, the real benefits came from learning about some of the contacts Arca had made in his name, along with his position in the courts. Apparently Arca had, under Harper's name, sent a research team to help the Ashford Foundation solve some of the issues with an experimental weapon called the Humanoid Autonomous Armoured Knight, more commonly referred to as the Knightmare Frame. The Ashford Foundation had been having some issues with their 3rd generation unit, and Arca's science team managed to help them resolve them.

The interesting thing was that the head of the family, a Reuben Ashford, was one of the sponsors and a close friend of Empress Marianne vi Britannia and had asked her to grant Harper the title of Earl. While it was beneficial for Harper in the long run, he couldn't help but wonder what level of contact Arca had with the noble. While he was grateful that Arca had seen reason and decided to let him operate independently, he was still quite wary of him. So he would have to be careful of how much he trusted anyone Arca had contact with. After all, it was quite likely that they could be used to constrict his movements, and he would have none of that.

Thus the reason he was heading to Pendragon now. He needed to begin to understand firsthand the political environment of Britannia and begin to make contacts of his own. He had read up everything he could about it, but from experience he couldn't completely trust everything being said without experiencing it for himself. As for contacts, it was quite self explanatory. Any contact that Arca has in the nobility had to be evaluated, and functions like this celebration were perfect for gathering information of this kind.

It would also, however, be a perfect opportunity to use the time he spent in Pendragon to find out some information about Arca from his contacts. While Arca had given him a second chance to help humanity, he had no plans on truly trusting him. While he had multiple reasons at the beginning in not trusting him, a new reason became readily apparent over the last month.

While he had been grateful for the amount of information given to him about the world he was now in, he had wanted to gain some information about the operations that Arca had been conducting. While Arca gave him information on things which related directly to Harper's plans, he refused to divulge any further information. He had confronted Arca over this, and didn't like the implications of what was said.

Arca had said he wouldn't tell him anything that he felt Harper didn't need to know. When pressured in any way, shape or form, Arca would remind Harper about how he did the same with Shepard in regards to the Turian distress signal. He would always remind Harper of what was said, and how keeping the information away from him is necessary. Using Harper's very words against him.

For Harper, it only raised more concerns during that month. Not only did Arca have information that could be of importance and wouldn't share it, but he also somehow had known exactly what had been said between himself and Shepard. While the first was simply a minor annoyance which he at least understood to a point, mainly since he himself had done the same many times, it was the second point that concerned him. Nobody except for himself or Shepard even knew about that conversation. He hadn't let anyone else hear it, and he knew that nobody on Shepard's end heard either. So how could Arca have known about it? The fact that this would fall under one of the things Arca wouldn't talk about is enough to create a more justifiable concern. How much more information could Arca have on the things he did? How much could he possibly use as blackmail to force him to do things? It was for reasons like these that Harper didn't trust Arca. There was something else going on behind the scenes with him, and he didn't like how he had no way to find out.

All of this made Harper glad that someone had changed Arca's mind on forcing him to work under them. He knew that Arca was the type of person who wouldn't normally allow someone to defy him. Someone had to have convinced him otherwise. But that also raised concerns, as it's quite possible whoever convinced Arca to allow him to operate independently could also know much about him. Thus, there could be other people who could try and interfere with his personal goals or try and control him. When Harper had asked, Arca refused to give an answer. Arca told him that, if he was going to operate independently, he couldn't afford to let him know anything that could compromise them, even if it was just a code name.

"Mr. Harper?"

A voice snapped Harper out of his thoughts. As he turned to face the source of the voice, he replied, "Yes Miss Finlay?"

At the sight of Harper looking at her, she paused momentarily. She was no doubt a bit nervous about this whole thing, coming to the heart of Britannia. The fact that he was paying attention to her also could cause some discomfort, he supposed. After collecting herself, she replied, "The pilot wanted to inform you that we're entering Pendragon's airspace momentarily. He also said that we'll be arriving at the Ricardo von Britannia airport shortly."

Harper gave her a nod in response. As she moved back to the forward half of the plane where she had come from, he turned his gaze to the window he had sat beside. It would be interesting to see the architecture of Pendragon from above.

As the plane entered Pendragon's airspace, Harper got his first view of the city. Pendragon was a beautiful sight, there was no doubt about it. The towering structures and sprawling gardens, visible even from this height, were perfect to shock anyone who came to Pendragon for the first time. The individual buildings around were also quite impressive, decorated in so many different ways that it seemed impossible to count. All of it, according to what he had read, done to suit the taste of whichever noble happened to own the buildings.

Along with the difference of decoration in the buildings, he could also see Saint Darwin Street, the home of the individual palaces of the Royal Family members. Each line of the Royal Family having their own building, larger than anything bar the Pendragon Imperial Palace. Each designed by the individual families, each containing a distinct appearance. The Pendragon Imperial Palace could be seen in the distance, symbolizing the beating heart of the city and of Britannia itself, with even more areas of the city hidden by distance. While he couldn't see any of the lights now, he could easily understand why the city was called "the city of lights that gleam the night sky." The sheer amount of buildings would, if the amount of lights was anything like the extravagant tastes of the nobles, provide quite the display.

Harper didn't like it.

The designs on the buildings owned by the nobles served no purpose whatsoever. It wouldn't help them increase any productivity, and, if the inside was as ornately decorated as the outside, it would most likely reduce it instead. Not only that, but if one learned the tastes of the individual nobles, you could easily pick out which building belongs to who. It would make it far too easy for someone to know exactly where to attack if criminals had an inkling to do so. If they did, it probably wouldn't be too much trouble for them. Such meaningless decorations would just mean less security systems. To top it all off, the extra items required to make all of these decorations and styles for the buildings could easily be used for more productive things.

The same could be said about the individual palaces. While each were unique and beautiful in their own right, it made it far to easy to identify which palace was whose. Any enemy or criminal could pick it out and begin to learn the habits of the house. While he doubted that they wouldn't have higher security than the other areas of Pendragon, it's still one huge target. While it was meant to be a display of power on the part of the Royal Family members, there were far better ways of displaying it. Much more subtle ways that wouldn't paint themselves as massive targets. Ways which wouldn't waste so much in regards to resources. He didn't doubt that there were defences to protect them which he couldn't see at the surface, but his point still stands. Some sort of military force would most likely be stationed around to aid in the defense of Pendragon, he knew, since it was the capitol of Britannia. But it would be useless in defending against the common criminal, as they most likely wouldn't even bother to deploy since they would believe the police could deal with it.

He shook his head slightly. While there were a multitude of things he could be frustrated at in the design of the city, it was of no consequence to him. He had no plans of having his presence based in Pendragon. Like in his previous life, he planned to operate in the shadows, away from the action unless absolutely necessary. While he would have to make more public appearances than he'd like, he still planned on keeping to the shadows whenever possible. It was far safer than the positions these nobles had put themselves in, and it came with far fewer complications. There was a lot a person could do if most of their work was kept in the dark.

Harper began to get up, noticing the airport coming into view. As he walked to the entrance hatch of the plane, he quickly checked the pockets of the black suit he had on, making sure that nothing had slipped out by accident. While he didn't trust Arca much, he had to admit that Arca knew what he was doing when it came to Harper's tastes. The suit he had on was a perfect replica of the one he usually wore in his past life. The white shirt with the high rise collar, a black suit with a rectangular opening, and a pair of loose slacks. All of it giving off the air of a casual businessman. Someone who wouldn't seem like much, who would be so ordinary that others would dismiss him as no one of importance.

Which was exactly what Harper wanted. Anyone who would dismiss him as no one of importance would be showing where their priorities lie. Power and fame, not wanting or caring to be associated with those who seemed to be lesser than themselves. He could do without them, as they would be looking out more for their own interests than actually caring for his own. Not only that, but those types of nobles wouldn't bother looking twice at a man who seemed to be of no importance. Perfect for avoiding attention.

Those who actually bothered with him would begin to show who could be useful people to interact with. Those people wouldn't be as focused on what the other nobles were after and would be more likely to be useful to him, so it served well to base initial identification of possible assets. Also, looking less like a noble than others would mean that the common people he'd no doubt interact with while in Pendragon wouldn't be as wary towards him as they would be with other nobles. That would mean more potential resources at his disposal.

As he waited for the plane to land, he spotted Ms. Finlay approaching him. It was an interesting situation with her. Coming from a commoner family, she lived almost her entire life in the California area and has been working at the hospital where he woke up in for around 6 years. For all intents and purposes, she was nothing more than one of the countless people who would be on the sidelines. However, over the last month her life in relation to her position had begun to walk on thin ice.

She had been assigned to help Harper as his system was healed over the last month. Through interactions with her, Harper had learned quite a bit about the world. He was a bit concerned about how she wouldn't question him too much, but he found out that she had seen a small hint about how there was something else going on when he woke up temporarily. It seemed as if Ms. Finlay was more than content to not question what was going on, as it would most likely result in her losing her job. Either that, or Arca may have decided to eliminate her if he thought she was too much of a risk, and she might have an idea what could happen if she leaves. He knew that if something went wrong with him, she would then come under fire.

Now that he was fit enough to be conducting the business that he needed to, Dr. Quincy assigned her to keep an eye on Harper and help him in any way he needed. While he thought he was in good enough condition to be able to do what he needed to on his own, he wasn't about to argue with Dr. Quincy. He didn't want to see if he happened to use anything similar to the… creative methods he'd read in Operative Lawson's reports about Dr. Chakwas. He still shuddered a bit at remembering how she managed to somehow subdue a krogan of all things and get him to actually listen to her. Lawson even reported that the krogan was _scared_ of her. As such, he didn't want to have to see if Dr. Quincy followed the same sort of habit.

With that being said, he could see there was some usefulness in her coming along. If there was something occurring that he didn't foresee, then she could be of some use. He'd have to see if she was worth keeping around. As of right now, she was simply someone to help him get started. Unless she happened to show any skills that could be useful to him, she'd most likely just return to the hospital and continue her work.

" **Attention, this is your pilot speaking.** "

A voice came on the intercom. Harper didn't pay much attention to it, as the pilot was most likely just announcing they were about to land. He was proven right just a few moments later.

" **We'll be landing in the Ricardo von Britannia Airport momentarily. Please be prepared to disembark upon landing.** "

After going through one last check of everything, Harper sat down on one of the seats near the exit and waited. The airport was normally busy at this time of day, so it would still be a little bit before they were able to leave the plane. He beckoned to the nurse as an invitation to sit down, which she accepted without complaint. As she sat down, however, Harper had to frown. She still wouldn't look him in the eyes, at least when she could avoid it.

It infuriated Harper to no end. Not because he felt that she was being rude or disrespectful, but because of what it reminded him of. As his head turned to the window once more, a brief reflection could be seen of his face. In it, he saw the one thing he wanted to forget, the one thing which reminded him of his failures. His eyes.

Out of all the things that could have remained the same, of all the cybernetics he was forced to have while he was Indoctrinated, why did those have to stay? Sure, he knew that he was no longer Indoctrinated since he hadn't heard the signal or the whispers in his mind which would indicate it. He knew having those eyes weren't a threat. But in them remaining where they are, it was a constant reminder to the day where everything went downhill for him in his life. A constant reminder of what had caused him to need those replacement eyes. The day when he found the-

The sudden jolt of the plane's landing gear hitting the ground brought Harper back to reality, his previous thoughts disappearing from his mind. There was no time to reminisce about the life he had. Now was the time focus on the present. Giving a nod to the nurse, Harper got up and headed to the area near the door. Since this was a private plane, they'd be let off before the plane was diverted to a hanger dedicated for it. After a few moments, the door opened as a set of stairs was brought to the door. He walked down them and, after spotting a car with a man beckoning to him, began to walk towards it.

When he came up to the car, he had to strain to hear the man. The sound of the engines, while only a faint sound during the trip, were almost impossible to hear over.

"Are you a man by the name of Jack Harper?" the man yelled out, as he tried to be heard over the engines.

"Yes, that's me." he yelled back. At those words, the man opened the door to the car and beckoned for him and the nurse to enter it. Harper nodded and did what he was directed to do. Once they had gotten in, the man followed them in and beckoned to the driver to begin moving away. As soon as the man closed the door, the sound of the plane's engines became subdued. If he had to hazard a guess, the car probably had some form of sound dampeners for any sort of talk that might be needed. Useful thing to have.

"There we are." the man said as he leaned back slightly against the seat. "Much easier to talk without those obnoxious engines to try and hear over."

Harper nodded in response, silently taking in the features of the man in front of him. The first thing that Harper noticed was how simply the man was dressed. No fancy clothing, no indications of anything to try and flaunt power, just an ordinary business suit. The man was definitely not a noble, or at least, not one of the regular type in the courts. Good. It meant there was a better chance the man thought more like how he did, which would mean it would be easier to interact with him. The man also wouldn't stand out in a crowd. With a pair of brown eyes, dark blond hair that was just past the ears in length and a clear cut face, the man could pass off as a regular man on the streets and you would never know what he actually was doing. Good first impression on him. Now, depending on how the conversation goes, he might actually have found someone he could use in the future.

Before Harper could say anything, the man extended his hand towards him. As Harper responded in kind, the man said, "It's a pleasure to finally meet the man who I've been representing for the last few years."

That was interesting to know. It meant that Arca and his group were not only acting behind the scenes for a decent period of time, but if the man thought he had been representing him this entire time, then it might mean he wouldn't be working with one of Arca's men. It was a reassuring thing to know.

Without any indication to his thoughts, Harper replied, "Yes, and it's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face as well. You're Allistar Campbell, correct?"

The man nodded with a small smile on his face as he replied, "Yep, that's me. Anyways, before we start talking, I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity you gave me."

Harper's eyebrow raised slightly. "Opportunity?"

"Yeah." Campbell replied. "If you hadn't accepted me for that position, I'd probably have been been out on the streets. Never had something to really apply myself, and my family was getting sick and tired of me not doing anything with my life. Problem is, what can you do when all the positions you'd actually put in effort to do are taken up by those self-entitled noble brats who only get the position due to their status? Not much, I tell you."

Harper nodded in understanding, as he understood the feeling. It's why he had wandered so much before the First Contact War. There wasn't anything he could apply himself to. Silence fell between the occupants of the vehicle as they entered the city. Campbell was most likely giving him a chance to take a look at the buildings and the general look of Pendragon from the ground. It was slightly concerning, however, knowing Campbell seemingly anticipated all of this. Arca would have had to be the one who told Campbell what was needed, even if Arca pretended to be Harper. But it brought up the question he'd had for awhile yet again. How does Arca know so much about him?

"Well then," Campbell continued after ten minutes or so, "time to get to business. We'll be heading to the Britannian Noble Society building for a celebration. I believe it's for the establishment of a new Area, the tenth, I think. Why they named the building that way I will never understand, but I digress. You have questions for me regarding the noble courts, correct?"

"Yes." Harper replied, continuing to observe the buildings passing by as they began to enter Pendragon. "What's the atmosphere in the courts regarding me?"

"To put it simply? Cold, dismissive, and downright angry at times knowing they have to go through a commoner in your employ. They seem to think it's insulting, though going by your appearance and how you're talking to me I doubt you care." Campbell replied, his gaze remaining fixated on Harper.

Harper didn't even react to that news. It was like he expected, they wouldn't like dealing someone who they couldn't gain any information on. Though he had to give the man credit, he actually seemed to be one of the more observant types. Much like the clothes Arca procured for him, the man knew what type of person he'd consider to employ.

He asked his next question, "Is there anything I should know about the courts which might require first hand experience to completely understand?" After all, he reasoned, no matter how good the reports could be, there was always something which was only made apparent when talking to people face to face or experiencing it for yourself. It was just the kind of situation he would expect when dealing with a group like this.

"Honestly, there's a lot which can only be understood when you're in there. But," Campbell said as his eyes began to focus on the building which was their destination, "the one thing I can say for certain is this: keep on your guard and treat everyone as if they're about to stick a knife in your back. The term 'a den of vipers' doesn't even begin to describe this lot."

Harper nodded, his gaze also having been drawn to the building Campbell was looking at. He had one last question to ask the man. "I'm assuming that you'll be accompanying me?"

Campbell nodded as the car began to pull in to the drop off point. "Yes sir. I'm to be your assistant, after all. That's what you hired me for. I just assume that, given how your messages have portrayed you to me, you would want to observe me in person and evaluate what I'm capable of. That, and I think it would be a good idea for you to have some extra protection."

Harper simply nodded. "Good planning. What kind of training do you have?"

"Father works in the military. Learned a lot off of him as he ran me through drills I asked him to do." Campbell replied as he moved his jacket slightly. Harper was then able to see the pistol that he had tucked away in a holster. He could see there was some credibility to his statement, as he hadn't even noticed it. One had to know the weapon they used and have used it enough to know the best way to hide it without giving any indications to it being there. It was one of the ways you could tell if they knew what they were doing.

"We're here." Campbell said after a moment of silence. As the car came to a stop, Campbell got out first after telling the driver he would call him when they required his services. As Harper got out, he saw plenty of other people entering the building, most likely on their way to this celebration in order to ensure those who were in charge knew they were coming when the event started later in the evening. Ms. Finlay got out behind him, having remained silent for the ride. She would be off to the side, an exception to the nobles and direct associates only policy as she watched over him. As he entered the building and headed off to finish a few things before the events of the night later on, he prepared himself for what was to come. He planned to use the couple of hours before the event to talk to Campbell and try to get a better understanding of the man. He didn't want an unknown to be close to him, at least until he could discern as much as he could about him. While the man appears to be someone he could use, he wanted to make absolutely certain he knew everything he could about him. But once that was all said and done, there was one thing he knew for certain. Tonight was going to be an eventful night, regardless of how it went.

* * *

After the last few hours of partaking in this celebration, Marianne had managed to find many more reasons to dislike them. If any of the nobles here asked her, she would respond that she was fine, that she was enjoying it with a smile on her face. They would converse for awhile and soon thereafter the noble would leave, most likely only talking to her due to her status. Yes, there were those who genuinely wished to talk to her. Most, however, simply did it to keep up appearances and to keep from getting on her husband's bad side. _Everyone_ knew it was a bad idea to get on his bad side.

She couldn't keep a small sigh from escaping her. Because of her need to speak with a few people about specific issues in a timely manner, she had come here due to their tight schedules allowing only this celebration. She'd managed to talk to them, but the conversations went by fast enough that she now had nothing to do. Normally, it wouldn't be a problem as there were usually a few people who she could interact with at these parties. But unfortunately, most were still on deployment and the few who weren't had business to attend to. So, she was stuck here until an opportunity presented itself.

As the Knight of Six gazed over the ball room the celebration was being held in, she briefly locked eyes with one man who was staying off to the corner. A small nod was given to her, which she returned as she began to walk over to him. While she hated these types of celebrations, she was glad Reuben understood how she felt about the whole ordeal. After all, he was amongst the few people she had ever vocalized her frustrations with. Since he was now free to talk, she had an opportunity to appease her boredom.

"Good evening Reuben." she said in greeting as she approached.

"Good evening, my lady." Reuben replied. She held back a small sigh at that. Unfortunately, these sort of celebrations meant that Reuben had to address her formally, something she had come to dislike due to putting up with some of the stuck up nobles in the courts.

"So," Reuben said, a look of mirth on his face, "did you have a chance tonight to put a noble down a few pegs?"

Though he had to address her formally, it was a good thing Reuben was still willing to humour her a bit. It helped to get her out of her current mood, if only slightly.

"Not many gave me the chance to. The few people who did excused themselves before I could go that far." Marianne replied as she gazed around the room. With how well known she was for her habit of defying the norm, including the idea that people in the nobility were unable to be flawed in any way, it wasn't a surprise that most people avoided her gaze. Some avoided her gaze out of disgust or contempt. Others avoided her because they didn't want to be the next noble that was humiliated in conversation.

Reuben gave off an exaggerated sigh, the look of mirth not leaving his face for an instant. "Well, that's too bad. I was actually looking forwards to see another spluttering mess leave the building. It certainly would have been the highlight of the evening."

Marianne smiled at her old friend as she replied, "Well, I could always let you do it for me. No one would expect you to."

Reuben chuckled as he replied, "There's a reason why they wouldn't expect me to. After all, it isn't as strong if it isn't you doing it."

Marianne joined Reuben's chuckling, her mood having lifted considerably from a few minutes prior. That was the nice thing about having known Reuben for so long. He knew exactly how to cheer her up, even if the ways he did it would be looked down upon by his peers.

"So," Reuben began once again as their chuckling died down, "I hear that you were deployed as part of the force to the newly established Area 10?"

"Yes," Marianne replied, "I was. Nothing too difficult mind you, but it was still nice to get out and actually help the Empire after so long."

A small look of surprise came upon Reuben's face. "Are you saying that-"

"Unfortunately," Marianne began with a sigh, "I've had to transfer over my investigation of the Thousand Sons group. As much as I'd like to continue it after the whole kidnapping attempt on Lelouch, I'm too well known in this instance. I thought that they were a small group to arrogant for their own good and could easily be dealt with, but apparently they're a lot larger than I thought. My usual means isn't going to be enough, so I've been transferred back to where my skills are best used."

"Well used indeed. The Ganymede has been getting plenty of combat data recently. I simply assumed that you were pulling double duty with your investigation and combat operations." Reuben replied with a small smile.

"Plenty." Marianne agreed. "I hope I'm not pushing the poor girl too hard. I wouldn't want my favourite machine to break on me now. And no, I'm not going to pull double duty like that when the effort would take me in two different directions. I may seem to be insane in some of my strategies, but I'm not crazy enough to overwhelm myself like that."

"No worries about the Ganymede." Reuben replied, wisely avoiding the situation with the Thousand Sons. It would have simply put Marianne in a worse mood than she already was in. "Ever since the energy situation was solved, the operating time can actually push the Ganymede to see what it can really do. So far, you've been pushing it well within tolerable levels."

Marianne frowned slightly. "Only within tolerable levels? There must be something wrong." At Reuben's questioning gaze, she smirked and continued, "After all, with all of the crazy stunts I've pulled off in it, I would think it should be experiencing the most of what it can do."

Reuben smirked slightly at her response as he replied, "Well, it turns out that our engineers created something well beyond our expectations. She's a lot more powerful and able than we ever could have expected. Granted, no one other than yourself has ever been able to pilot her, but it at least shows what we are capable of."

Marianne was about to reply when the sound of the announcer became prevalent over the noise of the ball room. "A-Announcing the arrival of Earl Jack Harper and assistant."

Interesting. He sounded a bit nervous, even a bit surprised. The name, though, sounded familiar. She couldn't put her finger on it at the moment, so she decided to file it away for later. As she was about to resume her conversation with Reuben, his widened eyes caused her to pause for a moment and turn to the entrance. If something was able to cause a reaction like this from Reuben, it was a good idea to take a look at what it was.

When she looked to the entrance, concerns immediately began to rise in her mind. The first man to enter wasn't anything special. She'd never spoken to him, but she'd seen him mingle about before. Dressed in a simple suit, the man, whom she believed was called Campbell if she remembered correctly, couldn't have been what surprised Reuben. She'd seen him talking with Reuben once or twice before, Reuben saying the conversations were mainly about the science team that had helped improve the Ganymede.

No, this man couldn't have been what surprised Reuben. As such, she turned towards the others who entered. A woman followed behind Campbell, one she'd never seen before. The way she could be seen fidgeting also indicated to her that she wasn't what surprised Reuben. She was probably there for some reason or another, but she obviously wasn't a noble. No noble would show nerves in the courts, as it would be something to pounce on. This woman was probably here for Campbell or this Earl. But why would a commoner be accompanying a noble? None of the nobles she had seen would ever be seen with a commoner in the courts. Again, it would be a sign of weakness.

At last, she turned to the last individual to enter. As she did, her instincts began to scream at her to raise her guard. The last man didn't look like anything special. With the black suit he wore and white high collar undershirt, he looked like a businessman. Nothing about him made him look like a noble, nor did it make him look dangerous. But she always trusted her instincts, as it has not only saved her countless time on the battlefield but also helped her in political situations. Right now, those instincts were like sirens going off in her mind to be careful.

She saw the Earl scan the room, slowly and deliberately. He wanted anybody watching to see him doing so, she realized. Most nobles had ignored this man's arrival, though a few stopped and looked as well. Anybody who stopped to look, the man could see them and would know who was actually curious enough to be willing to hold a conversation. A subtle trick which could be waved off as the Earl having a sense of arrogance and looking to see if he should have any reason to be there. Smart. This man, even though she had never seen him before, seemed to know what he was doing.

As the man was scanning the room, she turned back to Reuben. Most likely knowing the question she was about to ask, he responded, "Earl Jack Harper. He's the one who sent the science team to help with the problem with the Ganymede. Never seen him in person before."

"No?" Marianne replied, her curiosity now suitably peaked.

Reuben shook his head in the negative as he responded, "No. I don't think anyone has. The man accompanying him, Campbell?" At Marianne's nod, he continued, "He's been acting as a representative for him for the last couple years. Nobody other than myself has heard anything about the Earl during these last two years, and even then its only been small snippets. I asked you to get the Emperor to give him noble status because of his achievement of getting your Ganymede to operate how it should. The man's brilliant in what he does and I'd conversed with him through Mr. Campbell, but he's never shown his face to me once."

That's where she remembered the name. She'd asked on behalf of Reuben to have the Earl given his title. Before Marianne could ask anything further, Reuben continued, "I know it's not too strange for some nobles to interact though only intermediaries. There's some that rarely ever leave their homes and only talk through them after all. But what surprises me is that, after two years, the Earl suddenly decides to show himself to the courts. Why would he do that now if he never gave any indication to it before?"

Marianne frowned at the question. Why indeed. Before she could voice any response, a voice made itself known behind her. One she knew she had never heard before.

"Lord Ashford, I presume?"

* * *

The moment he stepped into the room, he was reminded of one of the reasons he had decided against approaching Donovan Hock as a supplier for Cerberus.

Celebrations could be wonderful opportunities, which he knew extremely well. They were perfect to gather information, to sow the seeds for future opportunities, and to broker deals in cover. He'd attended a few of them under disguise in the early days of Cerberus and later on started sending his people to them, watching for opportunities.

But certain celebrations like these, ones which catered to the pompous and arrogant, he couldn't stand. Many of the people here could be useful, many would be of great use without them even realizing it. But it was all too common to feel like he was wasting his time, as the people he interacted with would be more focused on meaningless items.

The atmosphere of this celebration was just like that. As he gazed around the room, he took notice of those who actually looked at him, even if for a moment. A very small number did so. The rest either didn't care or thought he was of no consequence to them. He took note of the appearances of those who actually bothered to pay any attention to him, as they would be people he would interact with.

He was faintly aware that Miss Finlay had moved off to the side, most likely to stay on the sidelines of the whole thing and keep an eye on him. She probably knew that it wasn't a good idea for her to interact with any of the nobles. Campbell was still off to his side, looking more relaxed than himself due to his experience in the courts.

He'd spoken to Campbell before the celebration and had found that he could have a lot of potential as an asset. The man was well educated, even though he wasn't born into nobility. He was proficient with a gun and could control his body expressions quite well. He was able to gather information quite efficiently, even gathering information before he was ever asked to have it. Not only that, but he didn't have any apparent ties to Arca and his group.

When asked about how well he was able to follow orders without question, Campbell "reminded" him that he had been doing that for the last two years. "Harper" would only ever speak to him via audio calls, but made sure that there was no way for anyone other than himself to contact Campbell via the means he employed. "Harper" put so many security protocols and checks for both parties that it was nearly impossible for anyone to fake a communication. Campbell said he's never disobeyed an order, even if some of them proved to be inconvenient in the long run for his reputation.

It was a good thing to learn, as it meant that Campbell seemed to have minimal ties to Arca and didn't have much of a care in regards to how others saw him. He'd have to do some extra digging to make sure, but he was content at the moment to believe that Campbell worked for him and him alone. The fact that Arca managed to replicate his voice and speech pattern was a slight concern given that it brought back the question of how Arca had been able to observe him before he brought Harper to this world, but luckily he could file it away for later. Right now, he was satisfied in his initial observations and interview. If the man proved his claims of loyalty, then he could have an extremely good subordinate right here.

It was at that moment Campbell leaned closer to him as he said, "Do you see the man off to your right? The one in the beige suit talking to the woman in the white and gold suit?"

Harper nodded slightly, unnoticeable to anyone but Campbell due to his proximity. Campbell continued, "That's Reuben Ashford, the head of the Ashford Foundation and the man behind the idea of the Ganymede Knightmare Frame, along with miscellaneous other technologies. I assume you've already read up on his file?"

He nodded again before he started moving towards the two conversing individuals. He'd been given reports of everyone in the courts whom Campbell had spoken to. He'd taken time to commit to memory each and every person that Campbell singled out as being useful contacts, along with a few that he himself had decided to approach.

As he walked up to the man, Campbell following off to his left and slightly behind him, he began to observe the woman he was speaking with. While he couldn't see much due to the way she was turned in relation to him, he could tell that the woman wasn't like the nobles around him. Her posture, the way she was speaking to Ashford and the subtle amount of muscle seen on her arms as she moved them in conversation were enough of an indicator to him.

He approached slightly off to one side of the pair, and, at that moment, decided to make his presence known. He made sure he was positioned where they would know who exactly he was speaking to before the woman turned around. It wouldn't do good to insult the lady before she realized she hadn't been called by a completely wrong name. "Lord Ashford, I presume?"

The woman froze in her speech for a moment, and he was certain she would have begun to speak if the man hadn't spoken first. "That's correct, sir. You're Earl Harper, I assume?"

Harper nodded in response, not acting until he knew how Ashford wanted this conversation to go. When Ashford held out his hand, Harper returned the gesture without issue. It was good, as it meant he didn't care so much for formalities where every moment needed to be proper. It also gave more credence to Campbell, as it showed hints that his reports are accurate.

Ashford beckoned towards the lady that had been conversing with him as he said, "I believe I should introduce you two. This is-"

The lady had been turning as Ashford began to speak, and Harper instinctively tensed subtly as his mind screamed at him to raise his guard. This woman wasn't to be underestimated, as he recognized her for who she was immediately. Seeing her face was more than enough to recognize her.

"-the Knight of Six, Empress Marianne vi Britannia." Ashford finished.

He bowed as was the custom for greeting an Empress of the Empire, and replied, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Empress."

The Empress simply scoffed slightly as she responded, "Sir Harper, I believe it would be best to say this upfront: it would please me greatly if you didn't follow through with the formality which accompanies the position of Empress. I may be a wife of the Emperor, but I'm currently attending this celebration as a Knight of the Round. It's easier to speak to one another when you don't have to deal with such… overbearing protocol. Plus," she said as a small smirk graced her features, "I never did care for the formalities that accompanied the position."

"Of course, my lady." Harper replied as he straightened. Even while he maintained his expression, he was cautious. This woman was an expert in words and of manipulation if the time came when it was needed. He'd read the reports and the news, and saw how good she was with her words. He'd have to be careful when speaking to her. Granted, she was shown to be a woman who valued honesty above all else, but when she needed to, she could be deadly in a mental spar.

"So," Ashford asked, a look of curiosity coming over him, "forgive me if I appear to be rude sir, but what brings you here? We've never had you came to grace us with your presence before."

"Simple," Harper began as the cover story he had been crafting came to the front of his mind, "I had been spending a while personally overseeing the proper formation of my company. I personally don't like leaving things in the hands of individuals who would cut corners or be… foolish, for lack of a better word, during the process."

He made sure to observe the reactions of the pair as he spoke. "Unfortunately, about a year ago while I was overseeing the construction of our primary facility, an… _accident_ occurred that caused me to be hospitalized for a while. Now that I'm back to health and construction is nearly complete, I believed it to be time to interact in the courts."

"And the woman who followed you in?" Marianne asked.

"A nurse from one of my hospitals." Harper replied without missing a beat. "She was assigned to me by the doctor who oversaw my recovery. He wanted to make sure that no complications would make themselves known after I started putting more stress upon my system. While I believe myself to be in working order, I'm not foolish enough to go against doctor's orders. I've heard enough stories of what such individuals are capable of, and I have no wish to experience such events."

A small chuckle came out of Marianne as she said, "A wise decision. I know the horrors of medical treatment all too well."

"Well then, Sir Harper," Ashford said, "I know that you haven't come here to talk about why you hadn't appeared for so long. If you don't mind, I would like to get to know the man whom my company has been working so close with all this time. While Mr. Campbell was a good man to speak with, he didn't tell much about you."

They began to talk for a while, primarily about Harper's past and current plans regarding his company. He had distributed his cover story for his past, and the two seemed to believe it. Harper had asked for some extra information regarding the Ashford Foundation, as it would be useful to know if he were to be working with them. Lady Marianne was one of the most vocal of the two, asking countless questions which he always made sure to be careful around. He knew that she was probing for information on him, and he wasn't going to give too much to her. After a while, Lady Marianne excused herself, stating that she had to leave because an individual whom she needed to speak to had finally become available.

He was slightly disappointed at that, primarily because he wanted to see if he could gain any information about the Emperor from her, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. He would most likely see her again, especially since she was close friends to the man he would most likely start working with in the next couple of of weeks.

As the night wore on, Harper learned a great deal more about Reuben Ashford and the resources he had behind him. The Duke had excused himself a while after Lady Marianne departed, stating how he "needed to put a few arrogant youngsters in their place" when he saw a few of the younger nobles harassing his daughter, who had accompanied him that night. Harper gave him his farewell, already planning to seek out the other nobles who had shown some interest in him. He would see who was a possible asset for him. This was the perfect opportunity to find out, and he wasn't about to miss it.

By the end of the evening, he had found at least one other noble who could be of use and a few others he would have to keep observing. While certainly less than he had hoped, it was also greater than he expected starting out. He had thought he would need to establish himself before anyone would be willing to consider him. Apparently, Baron Stadtfeld had at least some curiosity about him and was easily amongst one of the most approachable men he had ever met. While not putting himself in any compromising position by backing him, he expressed at least some interest in conversing with Harper about some possibilities in the future.

Unfortunately, most of the other nobles were just as he suspected. Arrogant, self-serving and more, he was happy Campbell caught on to his signs and helped get him out of conversations which went downhill fast. By the end of the celebration, as all the nobles filed out, Harper had gotten a feel for the people he was most likely to encounter in the future. He had seen the ones he needed to watch out for, the ones he could ignore, and possibly even some who could be willing to aid him if he showed he was capable of the title he had been given.

Not only that, but Campbell had spent some time on the drive back to the estate he was to stay at during his days in Pendragon to inform him about some of his own contacts. Men and women who would had skills and would gladly work for him, as long as they felt they could trust him and treated them decently. He was grateful for that, as it would be a perfect opportunity to see if he could begin to work on both the main business and the more… _clandestine_ part of it.

As the vehicle pulled into Harper's new estate, he let himself crack the first smirk he had felt in a long time. While he couldn't know what lies ahead in his future, he knew he had already gotten off to a good start. Within the next week, he would ensure that he talked to Ashford in order to start working out the level of cooperation between their two companies. For now, however, he planned to get some shuteye. Tomorrow he would begin to contact some of the people Campbell had suggested, then take things from there.

* * *

As Marianne stood in the ballroom, she couldn't help but let her gaze fall upon the spot where she had spoken to Earl Harper. Everyone else had left for the evening, the only one remaining was herself. She couldn't help but wonder about the man. She had spoken to some of her people after she had excused herself and had asked them to see what they could find on the man. She had just been informed a few minutes ago that what Reuben said was accurate: in all his dealings, no one knew anything about the man. The most they had ever heard of were small snippets from Allistar Campbell acting on his behalf. No voice, no pictures, no nothing. A history which, while appearing to be possible, she had no way to confirm or deny.

She was troubled by the thought for a multitude of reasons. The history kept her from being able to dig too much into it. The man himself was a lot better at this than she had thought, even taking into account his obvious experience she saw before she spoke with him. This man was an unknown, one which she could not get a firm idea of.

And this was only from one conversation with the man. If he continued, he could either become a great aid to the plan, or be the cause of great disruption, even complete prevention, of the plan being finished.

Yes, she knew the danger this man represented to everything they had worked towards. Yet she still hesitated to inform Charles. While she had no doubt Charles would try to subtly find out more about the Earl and determine where his path lies, she was more worried about Vincent. He'd been acting strange lately, and she'd become increasingly worried about it. She wasn't sure how Vincent would act, although she believed he would see the Earl as a threat and try to eliminate him. He wouldn't care if he was a possible ally to the plan, he would simply see the Earl as an obstacle to be removed.

Vincent has been in the palace recently and interacting with Charles on a few issues before he headed back to one of the Directorate facilities to continue his projects. Since he had a habit of sticking to his brother whenever he was here, it would be impossible to speak to Charles about the Earl, unless…

Marianne stopped moving around the room for a moment before she started moving towards one of the private rooms. She had an idea, one which could possibly be the means for getting Vincent away from Charles long enough to talk.

As she walked to the room, she couldn't help her thoughts as they drifted back to the Earl. The one thing she couldn't shake out of her mind was his eyes. They weren't natural, she could tell by the way they looked and the way they gave off an unnatural glow, even if that light was still subtle. She hadn't brought it up as she doubted he would address it, and she didn't want to appear to be rude. She wasn't sure if Reuben noticed it, but she would ask.

The thing was, she had absolutely no idea why his eyes were the way they were. They had to be synthetic, but she had no idea where he could have gotten them. Britannian medical technology was advanced, but she didn't know of any current non-military place which could have provided him with such. She knew for a fact the eyes weren't military grade either, as she didn't recognize the model. Which raised another concern, as it meant that either Harper has access to technology which most others don't, or there was someone else whom had done it. If it was Harper, it raised his threat level immensely. If it was someone else, it meant there was a faction which no one had heard about which was operating behind the scenes. If there was, then it could mean they now had two groups to look out for.

Once she entered the private room, she ensured that the door was locked and pulled out a small device. Upon its activation, a whine could be heard for a brief second as it began to jam any and all devices which could have spied on her. When she was certain the process was complete, she began. There was one person she could trust to help her, and would be more than willing to get Vincent out of Pendragon for a while.

She reached out with her mind and grasped the familiar link she had used countless times and said, "Are you able to talk, C.C?"

She waited for a moment for a response, and got the familiar feeling to wait. C.C was most likely overseeing something. It was the only reason she'd send a response like that.

…

"Well, I apologize for interrupting you. But this is important!" Marianne spoke. To any casual observer, she would appear to be talking to herself. But in reality, they would only be hearing one side of a conversation happening between a Contractor and a Code Bearer.

…

"No, it's not important in the sense of me being bored or being mischievous and wanting your help with a joke of some sort. This involves the plan." Marianne replied.

…

"I need to inform Charles about an individual. Earl Jack Harper, a man who Reuben asked to give noble status to, decided to make his first public appearance. I spoke with the man a bit, and he could either be an ally or an enemy. The issue is that Vincent will most likely see him as a possible enemy if he learns. So I need some help getting Vincent out of Pendragon for awhile." Marianne said as she began to pace the room.

… _?_

"He's much more than a noble who suddenly appeared! C.C, I used the initial phase of my Geass to look at him."

… _?_

"He's _empty_! There's nothing for me to grasp on to, nothing being emanated from him, and it's the same way as you!" Marianne's arms flew wide open at this exclamation.

… _!_

"No, he doesn't appear to be. There's a specific reaction my Geass gives me when I try it on you, and this man didn't give the exact same reaction. But that's the problem. I don't know anything about the man. There doesn't seem to be anything on him from what I could find. But since my Geass has at least a similar reaction to him as it does to you, he's an anomaly. We can't risk too much in regards to him, and since he's arrived today, it's quite likely he'll meet the Charles soon. If he's capable of what I think he is and is able to resist Geass, then we'll have a problem as he'll note discrepancies if Charles uses his Geass. But he could be of use if guided correctly, and it would be a benefit to understand why he has what he has." Marianne replied.

…

Marianne sighed as she replied, "Thank you, C.C. I knew you would understand. Please let me know as soon as you've managed to get Vincent out of Pendragon."

… _!_

"Yes," Marianne said as a small smirk came upon her face, "I'll make sure you get your pizza. No problems there. Good night, C.C."

…

Marianne deactivated the device she had and began to move out to return to the Aries Villa. She couldn't do anything with Charles until Vincent left, so the only thing she could do is send out some feelers to gain as much of a picture of the Earl as possible. If he had these capabilities, even if he didn't realize he had them, then he could be a major threat if he gained too much power in a short period of time. In observing the man, she was certain she would hear about many disruptions he caused as he rose. He seemed to be fully capable of an extremely quick rise in the courts. She didn't know what she would discover within the next few weeks, but she knew there would be one question which would remain in her mind until she could be sure of where he was going. One which only time could tell.

Is the Earl an ally? Or is he the most dangerous enemy they'd ever encountered?

* * *

 **There we go! Chapter 3 is complete! Man, that was interesting to write. Especially the conversation at the end. I don't know why, but it was actually a good deal of fun for me to write that bit. Before you all ask, yes I know that Marianne had no longer been, by this time, a Knight of the Round. There's a reason for that, I promise you. It's just something that will become apparent as the story continues.**

 **So, Harper has made his official debut and has someone who may be of use to him. Marianne has been introduced to the scene and has some concerns with Harper. Harper is currently horrified by the designs of the weapons in this time (and lets be honest, who wouldn't be with a weapon designed as poorly as that?) and has gotten a better idea of society.**

 **But new questions have emerged. How does Arca's group know things that should be impossible to know? How connected are Arca's contacts to him? And why does Marianne claim to have issues with her Geass when in regards to Harper? Well, those questions shall be pursued in the following chapters.**

 **In other news, I'm still looking for a Beta Reader. Leave a message if you're interested in helping out.**

 **Other than that, there's not much else I need to address. Once again, thank you all for reading, please rate and review, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **Logging off.**

 **Gammatron942**


	5. Chapter 4: Meetings, Deals, and Plans

**Hello everyone, and welcome to another chapter of The Illusive Knight!**

 **I'm going to get this out of the way right now. I'm terribly sorry I didn't get this out sooner. A combination of personal life issues, writers block, and more kept me from putting out a chapter as soon as I wanted to and one I was happy with. As it is, I had to change up my outline in order to make this one work. Hopefully this won't be the case going forwards, but one can never know.**

 **Now then, lets get onto the reviews, shall we?**

 **davycrockett100: Glad you're liking the story!**

 **Artyom-Dreizehn: Glad you like the idea! I'm really excited to pursue this further, so I'm glad this change seems to be well received.**

 **Cratica: Don't worry, that will likely come into the story at some point or another. I mean, even in Code Geass cannon Jeremiah already had the beginning of something similar. While not on the same hypothetical level as one, he still had a similar device when he turned into a cyborg. Harper is just going to have a field day with it when he find out about it being possible.**

 **Anyways, I'm just going to be quiet now and keep the rest of my thoughts to the end's AN. So, onto the story after the obligatory disclaimer!**

 **I do NOT own Mass Effect or Code Geass. Ownership goes to Bioware and Sunrise Entertainment for their respective properties. I just write this stuff for fun.**

* * *

"Anyone there?" – Normal speaking

" **What is that?** " – Character thoughts

" **Intruder Alert!** " – Speaker/Computer text

" _Command, this is Alpha-1."_ – Radio/Communications

" _ **Die!**_ _"_ – Geass command

* * *

" _Those early days of working with my boss were interesting to say the least. I'd worked with him for two years before that point, albeit over audio communications, and I'd already known that the Earl wasn't like most of the other members of those stuck up noble pricks. When I finally met him during the time he revealed himself though? I realized something. I wasn't just working for a noble who acted differently than the other nobles. I don't really know what it was. Call it a gut feeling if you will. But during those first few days of being with him in person, I realized I was working for a man who would change Britannia and the world. At the time, I didn't know how he would change it. All I knew was that I stood next to and talked to a man who had his own ideas for the world and would not stop until he could see them come to fruition. You know the feeling you get when you're standing with someone and realizing how their character and abilities are guaranteed to lead them to greatness? I felt the very same way when I began working with Harper in person._

 _Before then, it was just a good job with a good pay. After his reveal? My job became so much more to me. Suddenly, I was working for a man who expected the best and gave the best he could in return. A man who cared for nothing but results, and willing to do anything he deemed necessary. Some people may say that having such a mentality is dangerous. But I simply saw him as willing to sacrifice everything if it meant seeing the world he envisioned come to reality. I once spoke to him about his views. After I did, I never questioned his actions unless it was absolutely necessary to. The view he had of the world was worth any sacrifice, and I agreed with him wholeheartedly. Seeing the world as it is now? I know my belief in Harper was well founded. At the time, however, I never could have expected the events I was involved in would ever occur, or that I would be in the centre of it all with him. The only thing I did know at the time was my excitement to be working with such an individual."_

 _\- Interview with Allistar Campbell, Britannian News Corporation circa 2039 a.t.b._

* * *

 **The Illusive Knight**

 **Chapter 4: Meetings, Deals, and Plans**

Today was a good day so far, he decided. Yes, it was the first day in recent memory where nothing had gone wrong. The Empire was running itself without issue, Schneizel's report had no mention of any problems dealing with the other nations, and the plan was going ahead at a steady pace. Yes, it was a good day.

A good day which might just be ruined with the upcoming meeting. Depending on what the issue is, there was still a chance this whole day could deteriorate for him, fast. He truly hoped Marianne was simply up to one of her jokes or surprises.

As Charles zi Britannia, Emperor of the largest nation in the world, walked to his private study in the Imperial Palace, he couldn't help but sigh slightly. While he would never show it in public, here he was able to relax a little, not needing to hide his exhaustion. Bismarck Waldstein, the Knight of One, glanced at him with concern riddled within his features. He could understand why. The Knight of One had become like an unofficial brother to him over the years, and Charles knew how Bismarck didn't like seeing him so drained. Unfortunately, this was becoming more and more common after each dealing with Vincent.

At that, Charles couldn't keep the frown from coming over his features. As he entered his private study and took a seat to wait for Marianne's arrival, he couldn't help but let his thoughts drift towards Vincent.

There was something going on. Vincent tried his hardest to hide it, but after having to deal with the snakes and vipers in the courts, Charles had become extremely good at reading others. It was necessary to stay on top as Emperor. As such, he could tell Vincent was hiding something, although he had no idea what it was. He could push the issue, but he wasn't sure if Vincent would actually tell him. Not lying to him, but definitely hiding something.

Normally, he wouldn't even give it a second thought. He would normally assume he was trying some new experiment or conducting an operation which he wanted to make sure worked before he would talk about it. While he may not like it too much, Vincent did try his best to succeed for his brother, there was no doubt about that.

But given how his connection to his brother through the Code had lately felt… off, for lack of a better word, he couldn't help but be concerned. While Vincent may be acting the same as usual, there was definitely something happening which Vincent didn't want to tell him about. Considering how important the plan is to both of them, the idea of Vincent being willing to come so close to breaking the promise they made when all of this began was enough to make him worry.

Before he could delve too far into that particular train of thought, he registered Marianne's approach to him. Bismarck must have opened the door for her while he had been thinking. He beckoned for her to take the open seat across from him, and she complied.

Without making her usual teasing comments, nor fussing around on the chair.

He closed his eyes and sighed deeply at the sight. If she wasn't teasing him off the bat, it had to be something important. He decided to let her start the conversation. If she was in this state, it was probably the safer option.

After a few moments of silence, Marianne began to speak. "Charles, a couple of nights ago I discovered a possible problem for us."

Charles couldn't help but let his eyebrow raise at the comment. A problem? What kind of problem could concern his wife?

As if reading his thoughts, Marianne continued, "Yes, I know. There isn't much which concerns me. But this is a major one."

"Marianne, if this is because of those pesky terrorists you've been chasing after the kidnapping attempt, I can assure you that-" Charles began before being interrupted.

"No, it's not about that. In fact, it would probably be a lot easier if it was just The Thousand Sons." She replied, a frown on her face. Charles blinked slightly at the response. Whatever it was, it had to be serious if it made her think dealing with such a resourceful group would be easier.

"The problem happens to be an individual I met at the victory celebration a couple of days ago."

…Right. He was going to stay silent at that one. Given his last guess was wrong, it probably wasn't going to go the way he thought it would.

Marianne continued at the lack of a response. "This individual is one which could be of great benefit or hinderance to the plan."

Charles threw a serious glance at her. He truly hoped she was trying to get arise out of him before going on. While in poor taste, she did like to get him riled up at times. The plan, however, had already suffered enough complications as it is, both positive and negative. It doesn't need more added on. When she sent her own serious look back, he knew she wasn't joking around.

"Who?" he asked, his tone showing his demand for information.

"Earl Jack Harper. The one Reuben wished to have the title of Earl given to a few years back." she replied.

He quickly went through his memory to remember everything he could. Other than granting him a title because of the help done to the Ganymede, he couldn't remember anything of interest. He beckoned for Marianne to continue.

"He suddenly decided to make his first official appearance at the celebration. I say appearance in general because nobody, even his assistant, has seen him in the flesh before the celebration."

Before Charles could point out how some nobles were never seen at all during their lives other than by family, Marianne continued, "I checked with some of my own people. While people know of him because of his assistant's interactions on his behalf, nobody knows about him. Reuben doesn't even know much about him, and he's the one who's had the most interaction!"

At this, she got up and started pacing. Whatever response Charles was about to give died on his lips as he shared a concerned glance at Bismarck. He doubted this was all she had to say about the man, because he knew something like this wouldn't have been able to shake her so badly.

Without noticing the glance the two men had shared, she continued, "But that's not the concerning thing. Charles, he appears to be immune to my geass."

For a moment, his mind just stopped. He faintly recognized the shocked look on Bismarck's face, but he paid no attention to it. This really was a problem.

"Code Bearer?" he asked. If it was one, then he would have to capture him to find out what he knew and keep him held. The other Code Bearers of the world knew enough about the Thought Elevators that they could find a way to sabotage the Sword if they disagreed with his plans. It was something he couldn't allow.

"No." she replied as she shook her head. "He doesn't appear to be. I don't know how he's immune, but I do know my geass' initial phase showed a man who was empty, not having a single thread being emanated for me to use. C.C. had the same effect on me, but it felt different when I tried on her. Her's felt like a gap in the world, as if something should be there but isn't. When I used it on him, I felt the opposite. It feels as if there shouldn't be anything there, yet I knew he was standing right there."

That was strange. Not a Code Bearer yet immune to geass? It shouldn't be possible! No one outside of a Code Bearer could resist a geass. He'd have to get someone to look into this.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll have to be careful in the courts then. But I am curious about something: why didn't you want Vincent to know about this? I know you two haven't been on the best of terms lately, but wouldn't it be better if he could have agents monitor this Earl?" he asked.

"I would if I could trust him." Marianne replied. Before Charles could voice his response, she continued, "But even if we disregard our dislike for one another, as I'm not petty enough to let it get in the way of our plans, what I'm worried about is how he's been acting recently. If he thinks the Earl is a threat to the plan, which he is likely to considering he would know you can't just rewrite his memories to make sure he's obedient, he's likely to have him killed."

"And you think it's a bad idea?" Charles asked. He was getting more and more curious as this went on. He had a hunch what she was going to say, but didn't want to make any assumptions given how riled up she'd gotten about this.

"Well, we have no idea if this phenomenon with the Earl is natural or artificial. If it's natural, we might be able to find out how it works. But if it's artificial, then we'd either be dealing with an Earl that knows more than we do about C's World, or we could be dealing with a whole other group which we don't know about. If it's the latter, you know what we would have to do." she replied.

"Yes, I know all too well." he replied. "But I'm assuming that's not the only reason?"

"Right." she replied. "Charles, I think I should temporarily not engage in any wars for the time being and spend time trying to find out about the Earl. Normally, I'd just let the OSI deal with it, but as I said before, I don't want Vincent finding out. I'd advise you to meet him for yourself, but we don't want to make him doubt your image. Not yet, at least."

He thought about it for a moment. She was right, of course. Finding the motivations of this man and what his goals were was important, and she was right about how Vincent might react. Even more so with his ways of getting information from field agents in the OSI. But there was still one thing which was bugging him…

"Marianne, outside of any influence on the plan, why do you have such an interest?" he asked. He knew Marianne better than anyone else, and he knew when she had latched onto something mentally. Once that happened, she wouldn't let go until she was satisfied she had gotten every last bit of information possible out of the person in question.

"I don't really know. I could feel every instinct I had learned to trust flare up when speaking to him. I could tell the man was experienced in the ways of the courts in a way which requires firsthand experience, something he couldn't have due to him never appearing before." she replied.

After a moment's pause, she continued, "When I spoke to him, it felt like I was speaking to someone of a similar stature to you. Powerful, confident, and feeling as if he was able to back everything he said, never saying things he wasn't sure could pay off. But what's gotten me interested is how, for lack of a better term, _familiar_ he feels. When I speak to him, I feel as if I should know who he is, as if he's an old friend whom I've known all my life. But the confusing thing is, as we've already established, I've never met the man before."

Charles didn't know what to say. What could he in this situation? Someone who had the same presence he had? Marianne feeling as if she knew the man? If he didn't know Marianne or if he hadn't dealt with C's World and the physics defying abilities it had, he'd be wondering if something was wrong.

But disregarding Marianne's personal feelings to the man, if this Earl could leave an impression like that on her, he was someone he should at least have an idea of.

"Very well." he said. "I give you my full permission to begin investigating the Earl. Perhaps you're right. He could be a benefit if manipulated properly. Is there anything else you needed?"

"Well…" she said, a coy smile coming over her face, "You _did_ promise me a night alone together if nothing came up, and I've been waiting patiently for the last month…"

When Charles saw her smirk, he sighed, "You've been looking at my schedule and planned this around such a revelation, didn't you?"

At the innocent look she gave him, he couldn't help but bark out a laugh and return a smile of his own. When she shot him a questioning look, he replied, "The innocent look never really worked with you and your antics, Marianne. You might get it right one of these days though."

She pouted at this, and he couldn't help but laugh openly. With a smile on his face, he came up to her and, wrapping his arms around her, he drew her into a passionate kiss. She returned the kiss, the two melting into each other as they did so.

Say what you wanted to about him, Charles truly did love Marianne more than anything in the world. He knew it and she knew it. No matter what anyone may think, he would be willing to give up everything to remain with her.

Seeing Marianne's smile after they broke apart from their kiss only reinforced the thought. To him, her beauty knew no bounds. She was the only person he had ever seen as an equal. Not perfect, as no human ever could be, but so strong in everything he valued most. Directing his words to Bismarck while keeping his eyes locked with Marianne's, he asked, "Bismarck?"

Without needing to say anything else, Bismarck replied with a small smile on his face, "Of course. I will ensure you're not interrupted until the morning. I will also send up both of your favourite dishes. They should be nearly ready as it is."

Charles chuckled at this. Seeing the look Marianne threw at Bismarck, said chuckles turned into full blown laughter. Of course Bismarck would have anticipated Marianne's desires. He was as much of a brother figure to her as he was to himself.

As Bismarck walked out of the room, Charles said, "Well Marianne? It looks as if you'll be getting your wish tonight."

She smiled back at him as she said, "I'm glad Charles. Its been a long time since we've been able to have some… private time to simply be ourselves together."

As Marianne drew him in for another kiss, Charles let all thoughts outside of those involving Marianne to dissolve away, not to return until the morning. She was right after all. It _had_ been a long time since he had been able to spend time alone with her. The Empire could run itself for the night. Now, it was time to simply be him for awhile.

Tonight had revealed things to him, both with benefits and downfalls. But the content Marianne wished to discuss wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought it would be. All in all, he could actually say today had turned out to be a good day for him.

* * *

The halls of Harper's temporary lodgings in Pendragon were dark, the sun having set nearly an hour ago. The only sign of activity coming from a small side room, its occupant hard at work with the task assigned to him. The sound of a keyboard being used could be heard coming from the room, as the silence in the surrounding halls amplified the sound. If an observer were able to see the scene, they would be surprised at the overall lack of people within the building.

As Allistar took a quick sip of water from the glass next to him, he couldn't help but take another glance at the clock. 9:05 pm, it read. It was official: he'd been at this task for the last twelve hours, excluding the breaks for something to eat.

When the computer began to squawk at him with an error message yet again, Allistar simply glared at it and growled. This was officially one of the most annoying and aggravating things he'd ever had to do in his years of working for Harper.

Before his boss' big reveal two days ago, he had been thorough in making sure he was ahead of the game. After he'd been hired and had gotten to know how Harper preferred to act, he made sure to get information which could be of use well before he asked for it. If his boss was showing interest in a particular noble, he got as much information on them and any noble who could be similar. If his boss was talking about relations that must be made, he made sure to interact with anyone of interest. If his boss was thinking about possible avenues of production, he made sure to know exactly who might be willing to make some deals with him. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Up until the reveal, he was always ahead of the game. But last night, after his boss had to know the area of Pendragon better and finished reviewing important company data, a curveball had been thrown at him. His boss had known Allistar had contacts whom could be of help, and he had predicted that his boss would want the information about them. As such, he had already gotten together a file containing the individuals in high places within the echelons of Britannia. When his boss found out, he'd thanked Allistar for getting the information, but then he surprised Allistar. He'd observed how this couldn't have been all the contacts Allistar had, at least from what Harper's file on him suggested.

He'd told his boss what he thought Harper wanted, and was told how, while these people were good people to have connections to, he didn't want just them. His boss wanted as much information he could about every contact Allistar had, especially the ones who didn't have jobs but had high skill. While this had surprised Allistar, as he didn't think his boss would want to know all of it, he didn't have a problem with the logic. It just meant more work, and as he could practically get anything he needed from Harper as long as it was within reason, he had no reason to complain.

No, what surprised him was the amount of detail his boss wanted. When his boss had put it as "creating a complete dossier on them," he had realized this task would be a bit on the painful side. He knew his boss would want it as soon as possible. Thus, he was stuck in his current position.

When the computer began to squawk at him again, he was sorely tempted to punch the thing. It was seriously starting to infuriate him. He'd have to make a note to Harper about finding a better programmer in the future. Britannian software was good when it came to military, but absolutely garbage when it came to business or personal use. He'd spent the last hour or so trying to find some workarounds in a profiler program, which would create proper dossiers for future system identification. He knew that his boss would try to get his contacts to work for him, so it was better to find out these problems now rather than later.

Before he could continue working on the profiles, the sound of a door opening caught his attention. He automatically put his hand on his pistol at the sound. While he was expecting his boss to return right around this time, one could never be too careful. It could be anyone trying to exploit nearly anything regarding his boss' noble status, especially since his recent introduction to the courts.

When he saw his boss enter the main sitting area through one of the cameras installed in the building, he relaxed slightly and got up, taking his pistol with him. He'd visually confirm the man was really his boss. Afterwards, he'd inform him of his progress.

When he entered the sitting area, his boss turned to face him. Gesturing to one of the chairs, Allistar could easily tell he was thinking about something. He took a seat in the chair, and decided to wait. While he knew his boss was more lax than other nobles in social etiquette, he knew better than to interrupt the man's thoughts.

After a few minutes of silence, his boss spoke. "What's your current progress on compiling the dossiers?"

"Slow, but nearly complete." Campbell replied. "Civilian program I've had to use has been an issue, being the major cause for slowing me down, but I've nearly got everyone."

Harper nodded at Campbell's response. "Good. I want it on my desk as soon as you can, preferably by tomorrow morning if possible."

His boss continued, "Construction of the primary facility will be done in a couple of days. We'll be moving there once it's open and ready for us. I want to have employees lined up beforehand so we can get to work immediately. Do background checks on them as I've detailed to you before, then run them by me."

Allistar nodded at this. It made sense. His boss seemed like the type of person to direct his business personally, not liking to trust too many others where he could avoid it. Considering the nature of the courts and his position, Allistar could completely understand where his boss was coming from.

"The meeting today has given me a better of idea of where the business stands and how we'll be proceeding. I've discussed a deal with Lord Ashford. We've agreed on a joint venture to create a model of the Knightmare Frame prototype which could be introduced to the military en masse. A joint team will handle initial design, while Ashford provides the raw materials and initial parts. We'll be in charge of actually building the frames and adding on any practical modifications. The Ashfords unfortunately don't have many devoted production lines, so having us as the production phase is a lot easier and constitutes less risks involved for them."

Campbell nodded, taking down a few notes on a pad he had brought with him. His boss continued, "I also want you to get in contact with the research team we sent to the Ashfords. I have some things I wish to discuss with them, including possible ideas. While Knightmares could be a big boon in the future, the development time for the next generation makes focusing on them right now unsustainable. That, and we can't afford to become overly reliant on them."

He grabbed a briefcase which Allistar hadn't noticed and pulled out some papers. He then gave them to Allistar, which he then began to gloss over. "Make yourself familiar with the documents detailing the joint-venture. Until we can open up more divisions, we're going to be helping production of other parts for the Ashfords for the time being. While not the greatest possible deal, as the Ashfords will still be getting more out of this, it will give enough time for us to get started and let me talk to the research team. Once we can start producing other things, we won't have to be that reliant on Ashford. Until then, you'll be one of the people overseeing day to day operations and production."

Allistar nodded yet again at Harper's words. He knew Lord Ashford, and while he was more open to helping a new ally to start up, he wasn't simply going to let them leech off of him even if it was only temporary. The strong devouring the weak was the society they lived in, and even a man like Lord Ashford wasn't going to give away a good deal of his resources on an ally who might simply be devoured by society. Helping them was already risky, as the other nobles always had issue with anyone helping what they saw as commoners, even if they had been granted noble status. It was possible they might simply jump on him at the first possible opportunity.

"I'll be retiring for the night. All the notes of the deal are in your hands, and some of the instructions which don't require me are also there. Once you've done with the dossiers, get some sleep and get on those instructions as soon as you wake up. Understood?" his boss asked as he got up.

"Yes sir." he replied, moving as well.

As the two moved their separate ways, Allistar let out the wince he was holding at the thought of dealing with the compiler program again. Maybe, just maybe, he could actually finish up at a reasonable time.

* * *

The next morning, Harper was sitting at his desk while reading through the dossiers given to him by Campbell. The man had followed his instructions perfectly, leaving no detail behind. As it was, Campbell had a lot of contacts which would serve well for his company. While it may be easier to advertise positions for everything, having Campbell create dossiers on some of his other contacts had two beneficial aspects.

The first was that it showed how capable Campbell was in a short timeframe. While he had read of the speed at which he gathered data and even anticipated some of Harper's responses, he wanted to see Campbell's abilities when dealing with a short timeframe. This report helped strengthen Campbell's position. If he hadn't been able to do it or had complained, he knew Campbell wouldn't be the best, as he needed someone he could rely on. The report on his desk showed Campbell was up to the task.

The second was how it would make sure he had people working for him who were more trustworthy than random people. He wouldn't trust them until they had shown their loyalty, and even then, he wouldn't let them know much in the way of his plans. He doubted he would for anyone outside of Campbell, even then only out of necessity. But having people Campbell knew as employees would at least establish a good relationship, and make them be willing to accept what he said easier than if he hired random people.

Harper looked up from the dossiers as the door opened, Campbell walking through and sitting down on the chair in front of his desk. He could tell the man was exhausted, his cocky smirk the only indication that he was prepared to keep going.

At Harper's nod of acknowledgement, Campbell spoke, "Glad to have those dossiers done, boss. Though I do recommend we get someone on with us to design a better system for the company. Yesterday just proved to me how bad most civilian systems seem to be when it comes to computers. I mean, with the amount of problems in the program, I'm surprised they even allow some of these things to be given to the public."

Shifting in his seat, possibly from the lack of a response from Harper, Campbell continued, "I've also taken some time to read over your deal with the Ashfords. Decent deal, all things considered. Could have been a lot worse for us."

Harper nodded at that. Indeed it could have been. In a lot of ways, he had been surprised of how much Ashford was willing to risk. He had been expecting a far more protectionist attitude from the man, even if he appeared to be friendly. To know Ashford was willing to help him get started made his life a lot easier. While he had no doubt in his mind that Ashford would call upon many favours in the future for helping him, at least he knew that Ashford wouldn't do anything that would harm him. Their agreement, after all, meant that hurting him would also hurt Ashford in the long run.

Harper decided to speak then, knowing Campbell was waiting on him. "Yes, the deal is sound. Considering the risk on Ashford's part, I was surprised to find what he was willing to give. But that doesn't matter at the moment."

Placing the dossier down on the desk, Harper leaned back slightly and looked at Campbell directly in the eyes. He had to resist the urge to reach for a non-existent cigar to smoke. He had been avoiding them like the plague for the moment, knowing that this world had not yet found a way to deal with lung cancer. As much as he would love to have one and fall further back into the persona he had grown comfortable with, he didn't want to end up having complications which could create issues for him.

"Did you contact the research team?" he asked.

Campbell nodded. "Yes sir. Reason I came to speak with you in fact. Head of the team agreed to meeting with you as soon as you want. Apparently, she's been looking forwards to getting the chance to meet you since you first hired her to help with the Ganymede, even more so since she learned about your first appearance in the noble courts." As he said this, he started to shift nervously.

Harper, sensing Campbell's sudden discomfort, asked, "Is there something you take issue with Campbell?"

Uncertainty crossed over Campbell's face for a moment. After a moment, he responded, "Depends on your definition of 'taking issue' to be honest. The woman is good at what she does, from what I've been able to tell. If a person can do their job and do it well, I'll tolerate just about anyone. No, it's just that I've… heard a few things about her from Ashford which makes me a bit uncomfortable."

Harper was intrigued by this. It was the first time he'd ever seen Campbell visibly uncomfortable in a situation. He couldn't understand why though. Everything he'd read of the woman through Arca's dossiers on the people he recruited to work with him said that she was a brilliant, if a little bit eccentric, scientist. Nothing in it mentioned any personality abnormalities or harmful quirks. Maybe it was just something on a personal level for Campbell? Perhaps. In either case, he would have to judge the woman himself.

"Well then." Harper said, rising from his chair as he did so. "I believe we've kept the woman waiting long enough if she's so excited. Let's pay the good Doctor Vail a visit, shall we?"

* * *

The moment Harper stepped into Dr. Vail's laboratory, he couldn't help comparing it to the laboratory shown in that old vid he watched as a kid called Frankenstein. A wide array of machinery could be seen in nearly every corner of the room, some place neatly in rows, some just thrown haphazardly about. Some tables were filled with chemicals, others were filled with designs and stacks of what he believed to be research notes. Chalkboards also stood in random places around the lab, none of them seemingly relating to another.

To anyone coming in, the lab would look like a mess. But Harper knew this was just one of the quirks any scientist had. While the room appeared to be a mess, Harper had no doubt that the scientists who used this room knew exactly where everything was, and that to them this was perfectly normal.

Most of the scientists were gone for the moment, currently out on a lunch break. Harper had come early, wanting to get a feel of the type of scientists these people were. Dossiers could tell you a lot about a person, but seeing the environment they lived in could give many indications as to traits a dossier might not include due to it being deemed unimportant.

Suddenly, a muffled roar came from the room to the right of him. Harper turned to face the direction the sound came from, noting how Campbell was reaching for his pistol out of the corner of his eye. A door stood in front of him, the sign above it reading "Radiation Exposure" with warnings beside it. A moment after he heard the sound, the door opened and a woman fell out of the room.

Quite literally, in fact. Falling on her back, the woman groaned slightly as she readjusted her glasses.

"Note to self." the woman mumbled to herself, pushing herself up while completely oblivious to the two men standing behind her. "Readjust calculations for volatility of sakuradite when bombarded by gamma radiation. Also, ensure amount used is reduced. Results indicate extreme negative reaction in raw form of sakuradite on low intensity gamma rays, likely to see much more volatile results as intensity increases."

The woman turned and finally saw them standing there. Harper took a moment to take in her features. Coming up to his eyebrows in height, the woman had a roughly average build to her. His brown hair was a mess, cut short in a tomboyish look. Her lab coat and the beige turtleneck under it were covered in soot, no doubt caused by the experiment she had been conducting. As brown eyes behind the glasses peered at him in curiosity, he could practically feel Campbell tense up beside him.

He ignored it for the time being. Instead, he extended his hand. "Doctor Jacqueline Vail, I presume?"

The woman continued to stare for a moment before her eyes lit up in recognition. Taking Harper's hand in her own, she said, "That's me. Just call me Vail or Jacqueline if you don't mind. Call everyone here by their names, exclude the title please. We're pretty informal compared to other researchers. It's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Earl Harper. Been looking forward to meeting you, what with your little reveal at the celebration."

After she said this, she moved over to a desk where a mess of papers covered it. She grabbed a pen and started jotting something down, most likely what she had noted to herself. So far, the woman had left a good impression from these last few moments alone. Her mannerisms made her seem easy to get along with when considering the people he normally interacted with, and he appreciated the hands on attitude that was implied from the soot on his coat. In a lot of ways, he was reminded of the dossier and surveillance reports from his agents on Dr. Solus in his own world.

Vail gestured to the area surrounding her. "Make yourselves at home. Lab might seem like a mess, but you should be able to find a chair somewhere in here."

Campbell began looking for a chair to sit down in as Harper decided to remain standing. Without looking up from her documents, Vail continued, "So, what brings you down to my humble abode?"

"I wished to meet with the head of my research division in person. A dossier can only tell so much about a person. If I'm going to have someone leading one of the most important divisions in my company, I would prefer to learn as much as I can from the person themselves." he said.

Vail nodded at this. "I know exactly where you're coming from. I did the same when I first met Ashford's head researcher. Documents can be changed, and people can lie. But face to face? There's so many things which people find hard to control or don't even realize they do. Much easier to work with someone when you can get a read on the way they are."

After a moment's pause, Vail put down the document she was holding. "It's quite the stroke of luck that we think in a similar fashion."

Harper nodded, knowing exactly what Vail was indicating. "You want to learn as much as you can about the man you're working for."

"Bingo!" Vail exclaimed. "Though, to be fair, I haven't been trying to pry into your past or anything like that. The main thing I want is to get a general idea of who you are as a person so that I can get an idea of what I should expect from you. I mean, there's only so much I've been told by your assistant over there, and even he didn't know much about you."

"Very well." Harper said, his eyes scanning the documents and chalkboard notes in front of him. His curiosity getting the better of him, Harper asked, "What was the experiment you were just conducting?"

"Ah. That." Vail adjusted her glasses again, a habit most likely. "I was experimenting with sakuradite."

At Harper's questioning glance, Vail coughed awkwardly and continued, "Right. I forgot that most people don't really know much about sakuradite. Basically, a unique element discovered years ago. Very rare to find any of it outside of Japan, where the main veins are found. Primarily can act as a superconductor when refined along with emitting a good amount of radiation if given the proper conditions. The radiation emitted, given when an electric current was run through it, was the core idea behind the Yggdrasil Drive and the energy fillers Ashford upgraded the Ganymede with."

"Pardon me for interrupting, but couldn't you have avoided the energy filler issue altogether by simply routing the energy created by the Yggdrasil Drive into the sakuradite and create a power loop? Then you would have just needed something to jumpstart the process." Campbell asked.

Vail looked at him with what seemed akin to respect. Harper presumed that Vail didn't think Campbell was anything more than a bodyguard who knew nothing. Campbell had probably just gone up in her books.

"That was our original idea as well. Unfortunately, experiments dissuaded us from that approach. The biggest problem was controlling the amount of energy. We needed enough energy to power everything else in the frame, while simultaneously providing power to the Drive. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue. We'd just have to make sure the Drive was producing more power so that it would also account for the extra energy being fed back into it. The problem, we discovered, was twofold. The first was that sakuradite will sometimes emit surges of radiation in an unpredictable pattern. This would end up causing more power to be created. This then led into the second problem. The surges in power would cause more energy to be put back into the Drive, increasing energy production. Eventually, it would either short out the equipment or would end up generating so much radiation it would become unstable and react violently. If the radiation hadn't already managed to penetrate the protective shielding and kill the pilot by that point, the resulting explosion definitely would have. We tried implementing limiters into the loop, but they just ended up being overloaded. We knew we had to do something else, which is where the energy fillers come in." she said.

Campbell nodded, seemingly satisfied by Vail's response. At Harper's cough, Vail spoke again. "Now, where was I? Oh yes. Since I helped Ashford's team, we've had very limited access to sakuradite. Not enough to go around, and there's been more important things to use it for than random experiments. Now that Japan started allowing exports and sales of the stuff a couple of months ago? I've been doing every experiment I can think of. The one you saw me coming out of was to see what would happen when a small amount was exposed to gamma radiation. You saw the results."

She shrugged and said, "It's probably not going to help with much right now when it comes to practical applications. But I think it's a good idea to get as much data as I can about what can be done with it, especially since this material seems to be something which could change much of our technology. Basically, I lead this team with a 'try everything and see what happens' mentality."

Campbell coughed, and two pairs of eyes turned to him. Rubbing the back of his neck in slight embarrassment, he asked, "Isn't it a bad idea to go about with that mentality? I mean, I know most scientists like to throw things at the wall to see what sticks, but isn't that when they're not dealing with such dangerous subject matter?"

An amused look came on her face. "Bad idea? Kid, there's something you've got to learn about me and my team. There is no such thing as a bad idea. All there is are ideas with results, some with more catastrophic results than others. Better get that through your head right now."

Harper was certain he head Campbell mumble something about that being what he was afraid of, but he paid him no mind. Right now, this woman was shaping up to be exactly the type of scientist he wanted working for him. Willing to work as long as she was given something to work on or the resources to experiment, and, based on what she had said, appeared to be willing to research just about anything. Perfect for what he wanted to do in the future.

"Before we continue," Harper said, drawing the woman's attention back to him, "I need to know how long it would take for you and your team to prepare everything you need for transport."

"Shouldn't take more than twelve hours. It may look like a lot, but we're still operating on a pretty small scale compared to the Ashfords. This room and the chambers are the only things we have access to." she responded. "But why would you-"

She stopped herself mid sentence as her eyes widened slightly. A grin came onto her face as her eyes lit up in excitement. "Ohh… You're finally ready for us to move into what is to be our primary labs?"

Harper nodded in response. "Yes. The main facility is to be finished by the time we head out to it. It will be fully online when we reach it. While we'll have to wait a little longer for materials, parts and the machines required, the labs will be ready for you to get to work as soon as you've set up."

The look of excitement only grew at the mention of getting to work. "So, you've already got some ideas of what you want us to get working on?"

"Yes." Harper responded. He'd already made a list of different ideas which could be useful in this world, some coming from the things he had seen so far and some from innovations made in his own world. "I'll be speaking with you in more detail once you've been set up in the labs. While I have no reason to be suspicious of Lord Ashford, there's a few ideas I'd like to keep away from potential competitors and those who may object to me researching them."

Her eyes changed slightly, lit up with understanding rather than excitement this time. "Yes, I understand completely. Some ideas are better left in the dark until the time is right."

His respect for the scientist rose at her response. She had caught the implication he had been trying to get across, and seemed to take no issue with the fact that he may be making her conduct research which most others would never condone. To any casual outsider, it would seem as if they were talking about people taking issue to a former commoner creating new insights. That the scientist understood what he really meant and actually seemed excited by the prospect was not lost upon him.

"Well then." Vail said, "As soon as the rest of my team get back from their break, I'll get them packing up everything. Looking forwards to seeing what kind of ideas you may have for me to work on."

The smile on her face told him of her excitement at the prospect of new research to conduct, but Harper could practically feel the unease coming off of Campbell at it. He frowned internally, not letting any emotion show on his face. He'd have to have a chat with the man to find out what appeared to be wrong. He couldn't have one of the highest members of his company unable to work with the other.

"Good." he replied. "Before anything else, however. I do have one thing to ask."

At her curious look, he continued while trying to hold back a cringe at the thought of even remembering that infernal contraption he wanted replace. "On the way to the facility, I want you to begin work on a redesign for military assault rifles."

He was about to continue when the scientist barked out a laugh. At the look Harper gave her, she calmed down slightly and quickly found a roll of paper. Rolling it out so that the two could see the distinct appearance of a assault rifle redesign, she said, "Well then. Looks like you and I can see the same problems, Earl Harper. Been trying to get someone to accept a redesign of them for awhile. None of the contractors, however, have been willing to accept them. Apparently, the prior design was made by someone in the royal family and no one is willing to replace it because of that reason. Maybe you'll finally be able to change that."

Harper couldn't help the small smirk which appeared on his face. Oh, he'd change it all right. He'd change a lot of things in this society and in regards to the future of humanity. Extending his hand once more, the scientist grabbed it and shook his hand as he said, "Well then. I believe I will be looking forwards to working with you, Vail."

The smirk she returned said everything she needed to get across. Harper could tell that this was going to be an interesting partnership, to say the least. But at least the woman seemed to be of the sort Harper could relate to and understand. While he'd have to ensure her continued loyalty to him and him alone, he had no doubt that the woman would be of great aid in the future.

* * *

"Well, that was certainly enlightening." Marianne mumbled to herself after the camera showed Harper and his aide walking out of the lab. The camera was one of many dotted around the facility, standard procedure for any company. Especially one as prestigious as the Ashford Foundation.

She had expected Harper to come to the labs in order to speak with his head scientist. She'd asked Reuben to let her know as soon as Harper got into contact with the scientist, as this was one of the best opportunities to see how he acted. As soon as Reuben told her that Harper's aide had asked to put him in touch with the woman, she'd cleared her schedule to come at once. Letting her into the surveillance room, Reuben hadn't questioned a thing about it, understanding the need for her and, by extension, the Emperor to gain more information on the man.

She had been jotting down some notes after the feed showed Harper leaving, determined to record every detail she could about the man. A scribble of notes, ineligible to anyone outside of herself, dotted the notepad she had. She was taking down everything, from minute behavioural quirks she noticed to the slightest body movements.

Harper was an interesting individual, considering what she had known beforehand. A man with no appearances in the courts prior to his reveal, dealing with everything through proxy, yet she could tell he had a great amount of experience in such an environment. He had an extreme amount of control over his body, even managing to subdue responses which were normally impossible to control. She knew next to nothing about him, as his past was unknown to everyone. Her people still couldn't find anything about the man, and it didn't seem likely that they ever would.

She could go on and on in her mind about the details she had taken notice of in her observations, including how he interacted with those important to his success, but none of this was that big for her. Everything she had learned of the man was standard, something every noble who recognized a potential adversary would do. The fact that her research in the last couple of days had only amounted to this so far was strange. Others would call it infuriating, but the more research she did, the more curious she got.

The two major reasons it wasn't infuriating her were simple. The first was his seeming resistance to geass. From what she could tell, she wasn't even sure if Harper was aware he had this resistance. Normally a Code Bearer would be able to tell when a geass was used on them. C.C told her that this was simply a function of the Code which, due to their immunity to geass, she couldn't fathom why it existed. But outside of that, she had told her that a Code could give the Bearer a decently precise location on where the user was. The physical reaction a Bearer would then have was also something that was nearly impossible to control. Even after the centuries she had lived, she still had great difficulty controlling the reaction.

Harper displayed nothing of the sort. So either he was much, much better at controlling his reactions than she had ever thought, or he may not know about his immunity. Either answer simply opened up more questions for to pursue. That in and of itself was enough to raise her interest even further.

But the second reason was just as, if not more, of an influence to her. She simply couldn't get the feeling that she should know the man out of her mind. It was as if something was desperately pulling at the back of her mind, begging her recognize the feeling and grasp on to a thought which would explain everything. But there was nothing to indicate the man had anything to do with her life. No history, no known relatives, nothing. Yet the more she observed Harper and tried to find out about him, the stronger the feeling became.

As she was scribbling down a couple of extra notes, she suddenly felt a familiar feeling within her mind. Similar to the sensation of being tugged, she recognized that something was trying to direct her attention. She had already activated the jamming device she had while she was observing Harper, so she let her attention drift over to the feeling pulling at her mind. As soon as she did, she could hear the voice of a familiar green haired woman.

… _!_

Marianne cringed slightly at the exclamation. "Nice to hear from you too. You know that if I had any other way of getting Vincent away from Charles for me to talk to him, then I would happily take it."

…

Sighing, Marianne shook her head slightly. "Nothing. Charles agreed with me and wants me to investigate Harper. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with anything on the investigation side of things. It doesn't really help that I'm only now able to see Harper act. He's only been out of his estate once to talk with Reuben, and that was at the same time I was talking with Charles. Have you managed to find anything?"

…

Hearing the aggravated tone of C.C's voice was enough for Marianne to know that C.C's agents were having as much luck as her own. "Well, I guess we'll have to hope we get lucky then."

…

"I'm going to have to wait a while before I can do that." she responded. After a moment of no response from C.C, she continued, "He's going to be heading to his company's headquarters. As Charles doesn't want me to raise any suspicions from the man, I have to wait until he's working with Reuben consistently. That means its going to be a bit before I can personally keep an eye on him."

… _?_

Marianne shook her head slightly at C.C's response. "That's a bad idea and you know it. Earl Harper seems to be the type of man who is extremely cautious. If he even got the slightest indication that agents were put into the ranks of his company, he'd be on them so fast we wouldn't even know what happened until Harper began moving against us. No, it's better to wait."

…

"Yes, I'm confident I know what I'm doing. You may be the best at this sort of thing, but don't you forget that I was in your position helping Charles for awhile when it was necessary. You're not the only one good with dealing with clandestine actions." she responded with a slight huff.

…

A frown came over Marianne's features at that. "So you have no idea about a possible source for Harper's immunity either? Well then, this mystery just keeps getting more interesting." If even C.C didn't know about it, and she was one of the oldest active Code Bearers they knew of, then this truly was shaping up into an interesting situation.

…

A small blush came over Marianne's features at what C.C said. While she wondered what made her change topics so quickly, it didn't really matter. "You know as well as I do that I was going to inform Charles of these developments and have a nice, simple dinner with him. I have no idea what you're-"

…

Marianne's blush grew, as she was reminded how glad she should be that Reuben wasn't there right now. "H-how did you…?"

…

Marianne blinked for a moment. "Stressed out enough, why does that…?" she began to ask herself. Suddenly, the realization hit her, and the resulting shout made her glad that the room she was in was soundproof. "You mean that our connection was open during all of that?!"

…

Marianne couldn't help but slap herself at that. "You know what, C.C? I would really appreciate it if you just dropped it."

…

She buried her face in her hands at C.C's response to her request. "This is to get me back for all the teasing I do to you, isn't it?" The lack of a response spoke volumes. Sighing, Marianne asked, "What do you want to never speak of this again and to not tease me about this?"

…

"Deal!" Marianne replied. Anything to escape the torments that woman could imagine. While she wouldn't mind the teasing much, knowing that C.C had gotten a front row seat was a bit too much.

After a few more minutes of talking between the two over their mental link about minor things, as Marianne kept attempting to keep some of the more _interesting_ pictures that C.C sent her way out of her head, she said, "Keep researching into some of Harper's more interesting traits like the immunity. Perhaps it would be a good idea to look into the Thought Elevators a bit more, see if they have any possible indications as to what it is. Oh, and whatever you do, don't tell Vincent about Harper. With how strange he's been acting, he might try to have Harper eliminated before we get enough data."

…

Marianne nodded in response. "Good to know that we're on the same page. Well, if there's nothing else we need to talk about, it's time for me to head back to the Villa."

Before she cut the connection, however, a small thought passed through her head. With a smirk on her face, Marianne replied, "Oh, and before I forget, have fun when Vincent gets back. I know how much you like to interact with Vincent and have some fun~" she said in a sing-song voice.

She barked out a laugh at the resulting grumble of C.C dealing with Vincent which then turned into an indignant squawk when C.C realized what Marianne was implying. She began to angrily deny enjoying his presence much less being in a relationship with him when Marianne cut the mental link. She smirked a little bit at the bit of revenge she got at C.C. She knew that the woman would hold to her deal, and she had no doubts that she would realize this was just her usual teasing at work.

At one last glance at her notes, the smirk slowly disappeared from her face as the feeling of nagging recognition clawed at the back of her mind once more. She sighed as she collected them and picked up the jamming device off of the table. While talking to and teasing C.C was a nice distraction, it didn't change the confusion and curiosity she had. Questions kept popping up in her mind as she walked out of the room. But one kept at the forefront of her mind as she went to go speak to Reuben.

What effect would Earl Harper's emergence onto the board change in regards to their plans and the world's future? While she didn't know what would happen, she did know an interesting future was in store for everyone who had already been and would soon be affected by Harper's reveal. She couldn't explain why she knew it. All she knew was that it was a gut feeling in response to that nagging thought at the back of her mind.

* * *

 **Well then, a lot of formalities this chapter and consequences of Harper's reveal as he gets to work. The reason this chapter was hard was because of the lack of things going on. Next chapter should be out quicker, as I've already got an idea of what's going to happen and it's a lot easier to picture everything than this one was.**

 **Not much to say about this chapter though. As much as I would love to get onto the more meaty parts I have planned for the story, there's just some things I can't avoid. Chapters like these are one such thing. Next chapter should be more interesting if it decides to agree with me.**

 **Also, quick announcement/clarification. I'm working on another story called Code Geass: Dreams of the Dead. It's a Metal Gear and Code Geass crossover that I came up with. It won't be updated that frequently, as that story is mainly being used as a way to take a break from this whenever I'm having issues with this one. I'm planning to put as much focus as I can into this story and use the other as a way to try something different. If anyone's interested, go check it out on my profile! If not, then don't worry. This story is going to get the priority when it comes to attention.**

 **On another note, I'm still looking for a Beta Reader. If anyone's interested, please give me a PM and we can work something out!**

 **As I don't have anything else to say for the moment, I'll wrap this chapter up and consider it a success!**

 **Hope you all enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next chapter!**

 **Logging off.**

 **Gammatron942**


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